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Apache SpamAssassin

Rule-based and Bayesian anti-spam mail filter

Mail Servers ★ 344 stars Medium setup Apache-2.0

Apache SpamAssassin is a mature anti-spam platform that scores email using a combination of header tests, Bayesian filtering, DNS blocklists, and external services. It can run as a daemon for mail servers.

Official siteSource code

Key features

  • Multi-technique spam scoring
  • Bayesian and rule-based
  • DNS blocklist support
  • Plugin architecture

Strengths

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Written in Perl
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM

Is Apache SpamAssassin secure?

OSV.dev lists 9 published advisories for Apache SpamAssassin. It doesn't publish GitHub releases we can match, so we can't say which of them apply to the current version. No known vulnerabilities is not proof of security: it means none have been publicly catalogued.

  • Most recent fixed advisory CVE-2020-1946, published 2021-03-25 (2029 days ago), fixed in 3.4.5

Source: OSV.dev, checked 2026-10-14. How this is measured.

Apache SpamAssassin replaces

Self-hosted Proprietary spam filtering appliances alternatives

Health badge

Maintain Apache SpamAssassin? Add its health score to your README. The badge links back to this page.

SelfHostIndex: 72 · good

Markdown
[![SelfHostIndex health score for Apache SpamAssassin](https://selfhostindex.com/badge/spamassassin.svg)](https://selfhostindex.com/app/spamassassin/)
HTML
<a href="https://selfhostindex.com/app/spamassassin/"><img src="https://selfhostindex.com/badge/spamassassin.svg" alt="SelfHostIndex health score for Apache SpamAssassin"></a>
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.. image:: https://selfhostindex.com/badge/spamassassin.svg
   :alt: SelfHostIndex health score for Apache SpamAssassin
   :target: https://selfhostindex.com/app/spamassassin/

The score is recomputed on every nightly rebuild from public repository data — see how it is calculated.

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