I'm using the old standby filter -

Subject:{[a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9]}

and I'm seeing exactly zero of these spam posts people are mentioning
in any of the groups I view daily, and some of them are supposed to be
infested with them.

On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 11:24:05 -0600, flaco@jiminez.com wrote:

>I'm using the old standby filter -
>
>Subject:{[a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9]}
>
>and I'm seeing exactly zero of these spam posts people are mentioning
>in any of the groups I view daily, and some of them are supposed to be
>infested with them.

Can you be specific? Exactly what does that filter do? Should I add it
to Agent?

On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 07:31:33 -0700, Ken Blake <Ken@invalid.news.com>
wrote:

>On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 11:24:05 -0600, flaco@jiminez.com wrote:
>
>>I'm using the old standby filter -
>>
>>Subject:{[a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9]}
>>
>>and I'm seeing exactly zero of these spam posts people are mentioning
>>in any of the groups I view daily, and some of them are supposed to be
>>infested with them.
>
>
>Can you be specific? Exactly what does that filter do? Should I add it
>to Agent?

Controlling the Extent of an Atom's Match
You can modify an atom by following it with special operators that
control how much of the field the atom should match. The special
operators are:

* This matches a sequence of zero or more matches of the atom.
For example, the expression {a*} matches zero or more occurrences of
the letter a.
+ This matches a sequence of one or more matches of the atom.
For example, the expression {[0-9]+} matches one or more digits.
? This matches zero or one occurrence of the atom.

Any more complex regular expression enclosed in parentheses (...).
· A "range" of characters, enclosed in [...] square brackets. A
range is defined according to the following rules:

a. A range may be a simple list of characters. For example, the
range [qwerty] matches a single occurrence of any of the characters q,
w, e, r, t, or y.

b. A range may be a character range, specified as x-z. For
example, the range [0-9] matches a single occurrence of any character
in the range 0 through 9.

c. More complex ranges may be built with the previous two rules.
For example, the range [a-z0-9] matches any letter or digit.
(Remember that Agent's regular expressions are normally
case-insensitive. That's why you don't need to include A-Z in the
range.)

d. If a range begins with a ^ character, it matches any character
not in the specified range. For example, the range [^a-z0-9] matches
any character that is not a letter or a digit.

On Tue, 12 Dec 2023 07:31:33 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 11:24:05 -0600, flaco@jiminez.com wrote:
>
>> I'm using the old standby filter -
>>
>> Subject:{[a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9][a-z0-9]}
>>
>> and I'm seeing exactly zero of these spam posts people are mentioning
>> in any of the groups I view daily, and some of them are supposed to be
>> infested with them.
>
>
> Can you be specific? Exactly what does that filter do?

That filter catches "obfuscated" subjects in binary groups.
See the thread "filtering alphabet soup" in this newsgroup, here:
<https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent/c/XldA855t7zk/m/9QrpwGK2BwAJ>

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUOTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Is there a simple way to filter out "alphabet soup" like this:
    Subject: 905a987c2aa0473e80e6bcad95b2882c
    They're the result of an increasing trend towards "obfuscation" in the
    binaries groups. I'm not interested in the "obfuscatees".
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUOTE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the current flood of spam from Google Groups, that filter will only
catch a small percentage of it.

> Should I add it
> to Agent?

That depends. Do you want to filter out the "obfuscatees" in binary groups?

--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊

He that shews his purse longs to be rid of it.