Review WHM Outgoing SpamAssassin Scanning and Rejection

WHM can use Apache SpamAssassin to reject outgoing mail to non-local domains above a configured score. This is a server-administrator policy with real delivery consequences. SpamAssassin provides a score; the mail-server integration decides whether to accept, mark, route or reject a message.

Use the supported Basic Editor control

1. Sign in to the verified HTTPS WHM service with authorized administrator access. Preserve the current Exim configuration and understand how to restore the specific changed setting.
2. Open Service Configuration > Exim Configuration Manager > Basic Editor, then the Apache SpamAssassin options.
3. Locate Scan outgoing messages for spam and reject based on defined Apache SpamAssassin score. Confirm availability and explanatory notes for the installed cPanel version.
4. Enable the defined-score control with an appropriate reviewed threshold. The documented range is 0.1 through 99.9 with one decimal place; a syntactically valid number is not automatically a safe policy.
5. Save and verify the setting. Check the relationship with the alternative internal-score control rather than assuming both policies combine.

Forwarded mail has separate controls

The outgoing-message setting does not cover externally forwarded mail in the same way. cPanel documents separate “Do not forward mail to external recipients” controls, with their own prerequisites. Confirm the exact submission and forwarding paths involved before changing thresholds. Do not enable unrelated global features to force a result.

cPanel also documents an Advanced Editor outgoing-scan mechanism with an unsupported-feature warning. Do not substitute that low-level recipe for the supported Basic Editor task without a vendor-reviewed reason and maintenance plan.

Check both protection and legitimate delivery

Test only authorized, harmless traffic through the intended path and inspect actual scores, rejection logs and user-visible errors. Monitor false positives and resource impact. A rejected message is not delivered, and enabling this policy does not prevent every bounce, blacklist entry or compromised-account incident.

Investigate unauthorized sending at its source: account credentials, scripts, queues, recipient consent and sending limits. Do not raise the score indefinitely or disable filtering to conceal a continuing abuse problem. Preserve useful redacted evidence in a support ticket, without customer message bodies or passwords.

References: versioned Basic Editor reference and cPanel outgoing-scan distinctions and warning. Check the installed release’s help before applying a versioned control.

Reviewed October 15, 2026. Documentation review only; no outgoing filter, Exim configuration or customer mail was changed or executed.