Fixing the FH_DATE_PAST_20XX bug

Monday, January 4, 2010, 2:05 PM
Website Design by John (Article #259)

Like many folks using a standard LAMP stack system, I've gotten the joy of waking up this Monday to support calls caused by the FH_DATE_PAST_20XX bug.

FH_DATE_PAST_20XX is a bug in SpamAssassin, that scores any sent email from January 1, 2010 or later as spam (approx a 3.0 - 3.8 score, usually on a 5.0 scale to be declared spam).

Here's how you fix it (note that almost all of this requires root access).

1. Find the prefs file where the scoring is done.

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On my GoDaddy virtual server, this file was /usr/share/spamassassin. The file is 50_scores.cf.

On most other systems it is going to be user_pref.cf. Or, if you're lucky, you can use the local.cf file in /etc/mail/. However, a lot of systems use different paths. Be warned.

2. Make a copy of the CF file.

I made a file named 50_scores-bak.cf.

3. Using the contents of the CF file, create a new one.

Of course, my new one was titled 50_scores.cf.

4. Do a search for 20xx and change the score.

This section will vary a lot depending on your system. On my system, it appeared as:

score FH_DATE_PAST_20XX 0.075 0.084 0.054 0.088 # n=2

On some systems, it may be formatted simply as:

score FH_DATE_PAST_20XX 0.0

As a rule of thumb, try to conform to what is going on already. If it's a more complicated series of scores, conform to that. Generally, for those using the local.cf file, "score FH_DATE_PAST_20XX 0.0" will work fine. If you have to guess, that would be the first format I'd try.

5. Restart the SpamAssassin server.

If the SpamAssassin service comes back live, you're done. This also varies greatly depending on the machine you're using.

It's also not a bad idea to restart all your other mail services. Once that's done, you should be able to send with scoring 60% of the way to spam on every send.

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If there are any folks out there who need help with this, I do offer my services for profit at $40/hr. I know this can be a particularly nasty thing to fix on GoDaddy systems.

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Wonder where to start with your web design business?

This blog follows along with my efforts to build and grow a website design business, Pro Content and Design.

The goal of this blog is to fill in blanks that may be empty as you get your business rolling.

This blog, particularly the source code section, is not intended for beginners. If you are not comfortable with databases, Ajax, DOM objects and other advanced methods, I strongly suggest you go take a look over at W3 Schools before even reading -- let alone tinkering with -- any of the code here.

I hope this blog has some value to web designers as they attempt to get their businesses going.

Good luck, and happy reading.

Thank you,
John Crawford
Pro Content and Design