Consider performing a 
Security Settings of Electronic Mailing Lists
Topic: Electronic Mailing Lists
Audience: Students, Faculty and Staff
Creation Date: 05-29-2009
Author: Zachary Wincek
Oakland University offers electronic mailing lists for faculty, staff, departments, and affiliated organizations. Upon completion of the application at http://www.oakland.edu/uts/accounts, you will receive an electronic mailing list of the name that you have chosen. The list comes with the default settings. It is incumbent upon the owner of the list to be responsible for actions that transpire intralist. The list is quite flexible by allowing administrators to customize the settings of the list at https://lists.oakland.edu/mailman/admin/ [name of list]; the customization means that administrators are presented settings in the administrative interface to which they are unfamiliar. The table reviews the settings and categories that involve aspects of security. Secure values and paraphrased definitions of the settings are included. Note that these settings are optional, but provide a means of securing lists. While you may choose to deviate from the settings, do so with the understanding of the implications of the modifications.
For detailed information of the lists, read the documentation at http://www.oakland.edu/?id=13848&sid=70.
Settings |
Category |
Value |
Meaning |
Hide the sender of a message, replacing it with the list address (Removes From, Sender and Reply-To fields) |
[General Options] |
Yes |
The sender of the message will only be the list. |
Where are replies to list messages directed? Poster is strongly recommended for most mailing lists. |
[General Options] |
Poster |
The Reply-To header information will point to the poster’s address. |
Maximum length in kilobytes (KB) of a message body. Use 0 for no limit. |
[General Options] |
40 |
Messages larger than the size will be held. |
Discard held messages older than this number of days. Use 0 for no automatic discarding. |
[General Options] |
7 |
Messages older than the number of days will be discarded. |
Advertise this list when people ask what lists are on this machine? |
[Subscription rules] |
No |
The name of the list will not be published as an available list. |
Who can view subscription list? |
[Subscription rules] |
List admin only |
Restricts only administrators to query the list. |
Show member addresses so they're not directly recognizable as email addresses? |
[Subscription rules] |
Yes |
Obscures the addresses of members. |
By default, should new list member postings be moderated? |
[Sender filters] |
Yes |
New members are moderated. |
Action to take when a moderated member posts to the list. |
[Sender filters] |
Held |
Messages from moderated members are held in the queue. |
Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined. |
[Sender filters] |
Discard |
Messages from nonmembers are discarded. |
Must posts have list named in destination (to, cc) field (or be among the acceptable alias names, specified below)? |
[Recipient filters] |
Yes |
A message must have a To: address. |
Ceiling on acceptable number of recipients for a posting. |
[Recipient filters] |
10 |
Messages going to more than the number of recipients are held. |
Should Mailman perform automatic bounce processing? |
[Bounce processing] |
Yes |
The list will keep track of bounces. |
Should Mailman send you, the list owner, any bounce messages that failed to be detected by the bounce processor? |
[Bounce processing] |
Yes |
Informs the administrator of bounces. |
Should Mailman notify you, the list owner, when bounces cause a member's subscription to be disabled? |
[Bounce processing] |
Yes |
Informs the administrator of bounces. |
Should Mailman notify you, the list owner, when bounces cause a member to be unsubscribed? |
[Bounce processing] |
Yes |
Informs the administrator of bounces. |
Archive messages? |
[Archiving Options] |
No |
Does not save messages after dissemination. |
Is archive file source for public or private archival? |
[Archiving Options] |
private |
Restricts information to members. |
Should new posts to the mailing list be sent to the newsgroup? |
[Mail<->News gateways] |
No |
Forwards messages from the list to the newsgroup. |
Should new posts to the newsgroup be sent to the mailing list? |
[Mail<->News gateways] |
No |
Forwards messages from the newsgroup to the list. |
The moderation policy of the newsgroup. |
[Mail<->News gateways] |
Moderated |
Moderated messages can be either accepted, held, or discarded. |
Should Mailman send an auto-response to mailing list posters? |
[Auto-responder] |
No |
Stops automatic responses being sent to sender. |
Should Mailman send an auto-response to emails sent to the -owner address? |
[Auto-responder] |
No |
Stops automatic responses being sent to the owners at [listname][email protected]. |
Should Mailman send an auto-response to emails sent to the -request address? If you choose yes, decide whether you want Mailman to discard the original email, or forward it on to the system as a normal mail command. |
[Auto-responder] |
No |
Stops automatic responses being sent to the mail bot that processes commands at [listname][email protected]. |
Number of days between auto-responses to either the mailing list or -request/-owner address from the same poster. Set to zero (or negative) for no grace period (i.e. auto-respond to every message). |
[Auto-responder] |
90 |
Limits the frequency of automatic messages to members, owners, and the mail bot from the same sender. |
For further help, please email <<MailTo([email protected])>>, visit us at 202 Kresge Library or call (248)370-4357 Monday-Friday, 8 am - 5 pm.