E-mail system providing filtering methodology on a per-domain basis
DCFirst Claim
1. In an electronic mail (e-mail) system, a method for processing an incoming e-mail message that is being received from another domain, the method comprising:
- receiving at a first process a request from a particular domain to establish a new connection for transmitting a particular e-mail message to the e-mail system;
in response to receipt of said request from the particular domain, creating a second process for handling the request to establish a new connection, said second process being connected to a flow control filter providing filtering on a per-domain basis;
comparing the request from the particular domain against configurable policy rules; and
denying the request if any of said policy rules would be violated.
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Abstract
An e-mail system is described that includes a flow control filter, which is particularly suited for filtering on a per-domain (host) basis. During processing of incoming e-mail, each child MTA process created to handle a particular new connection connects to a flow control filter service, so that it can interact with the service during arrival of a message. This interaction provides a complete description of the incoming client, including IP address and host name, as well as the complete SMTP interaction. Since the flow control filter service monitors all children processes, it attains a global view of traffic flowing through the system. By virtue of its global view, the flow control filter service can track information on a per domain basis, including total volume of e-mail received from a particular domain over a given period of time. Since the knowledge lost by the forking process is captured by the flow control filter service, the service is in a position to enforce policy-based rules, including placing restrictions on child processes, based on the per-domain tallies encountered.
111 Citations
53 Claims
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1. In an electronic mail (e-mail) system, a method for processing an incoming e-mail message that is being received from another domain, the method comprising:
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receiving at a first process a request from a particular domain to establish a new connection for transmitting a particular e-mail message to the e-mail system; in response to receipt of said request from the particular domain, creating a second process for handling the request to establish a new connection, said second process being connected to a flow control filter providing filtering on a per-domain basis; comparing the request from the particular domain against configurable policy rules; and denying the request if any of said policy rules would be violated. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. An electronic mail (e-mail) system providing filtering of incoming e-mail messages on a per-domain basis, the system comprising:
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a parent process for receiving requests from different domains to establish new connections for transmitting e-mail messages; a plurality of child processes for handling the requests to establish new connections and for handling subsequent requests for transmitting e-mail messages; a set of rules specifying conditions for accepting requests for new connections and for accepting requests for transmitting e-mail messages; and a flow control filter, in communication wit said child processes and said set of rules, providing filtering based on each domain'"'"'s conformance to said rules. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. In an electronic mail (e-mail) system, a method for processing incoming e-mail messages that are being received from different domains, the method comprising:
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receiving requests from different domains to establish new connections for transmitting e-mail messages to the e-mail system; for each request received in connection with transmitting a given e-mail message, performing substeps of; identifying a particular domain that has submitted the request, based on the determined identity of the domain, determining whether the request to establish a new connection can be granted without violating policy rules, and based on the determined identity of the domain, determining whether subsequent requests to transmit different portions of a given e-mail message can be granted without violating said policy rules. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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Specification