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Mail Flow Scanning & Filters Order of Processing - ProofPoint

Situation You need to know the order of processing filters use to process inbound mail with. You may also need to know what order the filtering service triggers in.
Solution

See the chart below for filter list order of operations as well as additional information regarding:

  • Mail Flow Scanning
  • PDR rejection
  • Scope order


Filter List Order Of Operations

 The Proofpoint Essentials filtering services has different sections of filtering. 

Mail Flow Scanning

Inbound mail will get scanned in the below order, and may get rejected at the first stage. 

  1. Proofpoint Dynamic IP reputation (PDR) check and Cloudmark Sender Intelligence (CSI) check
  2. Service level DNS checks
  3. Anti-virus check
  4. Attachment Defense check (if licensed)
  5. Anti-spoofing check
  6. Customized filter checks (see next section)
  7. Spam engine check
  8. URL Defense modification

PDR rejection

The Proofpoint Dynamic Reputation service is our proprietary block list. IP owners can review the PDR listing and removal KB for further information.  Proofpoint will bounce messages indicating blocked by prs.proofpoint.com.

CSI rejection

The Cloudmark Sender Intelligence service is another proprietary block list. IP owners can review the CSI IP reputation KB for further information.  Proofpoint will bounce messages indicating blocked using Cloudmark Sender Intelligence.

Custom Filter List Order Of Operations

The custom filter list is based upon both Sender Lists and a Filter created. This goes in the top down order in the table below:

Filter Order

In the filter page, filters are prioritized by a top-down selection in itself. 

Scope Order

In filter order in the table below, it should be noted that the hierarchy of similar filter type goes:

  • End-user has highest priority
  • Group has middle priority
  • Organization has lowest priority

Custom filter list order of operations

The custom filter list is based upon both Sender Lists and a Filter created. This goes in the top down order in the table below:

Filter Order

In the filter page, filters are prioritized by a top-down selection in itself. 

Scope Order

In filter order in the table below, it should be noted that the hierarchy of similar filter type goes:

  • End-user has highest priority
  • Group has middle priority
  • Organization has lowest priority
Order Number Type Scope Action Entry action
1 Filter End-User N/A N/A
2 Filter Group  N/A N/A
3 Filter Organization N/A N/A
4 Sender List End-User Block IP Address
5 Sender List End-User Safe IP Address
6 Sender list End-User Block SMTP Address
7 Sender list End-User Safe SMTP Address
8 Sender list End-User Block Domain
9 Sender list End-User Safe Domain
10 Sender list End-User Block Wildcard Domain
11 Sender list End-User Safe Wildcard Domain
12 Sender list End-User Block Wildcard IP
13 Sender list End-User Safe Wildcard IP
14 Sender list End-User Block CIDR
15 Sender list End-User Safe CIDR
16 Sender list Group Block IP Address
17 Sender list Group Safe IP Address
18 Sender list Group Block SMTP Address
19 Sender list Group Safe SMTP Address
20 Sender list Group Block Domain
21 Sender list Group Safe Domain
22 Sender list Group Block Wildcard Domain
23 Sender list Group Safe Wildcard Domain
24 Sender list Group Block Wildcard IP
25 Sender list Organization Safe Wildcard IP
26 Sender list Organization Block CIDR
27 Sender list Organization Safe CIDR
28 Sender list Organization Block IP Address
29 Sender list Organization Safe IP Address
30 Sender list Organization Block SMTP Address
31 Sender list Organization Safe SMTP Address
32 Sender list Organization Block Domain
33 Sender list Organization Safe Domain
34 Sender list Organization Block Wildcard Domain
35 Sender list Organization Safe Wildcard Domain
36 Sender list Organization Block Wildcard IP
37 Sender list Organization Safe Wildcard IP
38 Sender list Organization Block CIDR
39 Sender list Organization Safe CIDR
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  1. Carlos Rios

  2. Posted
  3. Updated

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