Dark Mailer

Dark Mailer is a piece of software that has been under attack from anti-spam groups since its inception. It claims to be used for legitimate bulk-emailing to opt-in subscribers, but the fact that it relies on zombie computers to mail the campaigns seems to undermine this.

How IT Works

The software taps into a network of zombie computers and is able to send 50,000 pieces of spam email per hour, from a regular cable modem connection. It affords near-total anonymity because of the networking and is often used by spammers. It currently does not have an official website for downloading, however copies can still be found.

Cracks and Branches

Dark Mailer is known as the hub of quite a few mass spamming utilities. One of the most prominent being dm.cgi, a script which mercilessly spams predefined email addresses using the cgi capabilities of unsuspecting websites or whole servers. The main problem with dm.cgi is the anonymity it runs with, making it a bit confusing to find if you have large log files. The best way to target and delete dm.cgi is to search your log files for large amounts of various outgoing HTTP servers.