Python open proxy honeypot

Alex Reinhart alexreinhart at satx.rr.com
Mon Jun 12 22:38:25 EDT 2006


Being deluged by spam like nearly all of us (though fortunately I have a
very good spam filter), I also hate spam as much as almost everybody. I
know basic Python (enough to make a simple IRC bot) and I figured a good
project to help learn Python would be to make a simple "proxypot."

I've done some research and found one already existing, written in Perl
(http://www.proxypot.org/). However, I prefer the syntax and ease of
Python (and Proxypot is no longer maintained, as far as I can see), so I
decided to write my own. I have just one question:

Is running Python's built-in smtpd, pretending to accept and forward all
messages, enough to get me noticed by a spammer, or do I have to do
something else to "advertise" my script as an open proxy?

I'm hoping to make this proxy script "distributed", in that several
honeypots are run on different servers, and the results are then
collected on a central server that provides statistics and a listing of
all spammers caught. So, just out of curiosity, I'd like to know how
many people would actually be willing to run a honeypot on their server,
and how many are opposed to the idea (just so I know if the concept is
even valid).

Thanks!



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