Finding and Fixing Spam Abuse on Your Server
If you suspect hackers have abused your server to send email without your knowledge, we have tools to help you clean up the server and help prevent the same issue from happening again.
The tools you can use depend on your operating system, control panel, and MTA (Mail Transfer Agent). If we don't have tools for your server's configuration, we recommend looking for other resources.
All Servers
We recommend ensuring your relays are closed. For more information, see Testing Your Server for Open Relays.
Linux® & cPanel®
cPanel has the following information to help you find problems on your server:
- Sent Mail Statistics reports provide a general overview of the users and domains that have sent messages over a specific time period and is helpful for isolating potentially compromised sites that are sending messages.
- Relayers reports show which accounts have been sending the most messages, which can show you which email account is responsible for spamming.
- Mail Statistics Summary shows a summary of all mail statistics, which can give you an idea where the spam on your server's originating.
Inmotion® Hosting has the following documents for those using Exim:
Linux & Parallels Plesk Panel® (Qmail & Postfix)
Depending on which MTA you use, Parallels has documentation for finding the domains running spam scripts on your server:
Both MTAs can use the following documentation: The server is saturated with SPAM. There are many messages in the queue. The mail is sent slowly.
Windows® & Parallels Plesk Panel® (MailEnable)
MailEnable has the following documentation: How to clear the queues if a spammer abuses the server.
