null "Clean Header" multi-times gags sendmail

[Julian Field]

At 16:03 26/07/2002, you wrote:
>    I know, I know.  My user community complained "what is this found to
>be clean clutter in my email messages?" after I started using mailscanner
>this Spring.  So my quick fix was to null out the clean header message.
>A big chunk of my community uses Eudora, which shows the X-MailScanner
>message at the top as part of the mail message (Outlook doesn't as I
>remember, Pine doesn't either).  At least the line "X-MailScanner:"
>tells *me* that mailscanner touched the message.
>
>Things worked fine until this week, when I went from sendmail 8.11.6 to
>8.12.5, and went from mailscanner 3.21.1 to 3.22.7.  Then I started
>noticing this corner-case problem for stuff that goes thru our server
>twice.  Sheesh, listen to user complaints and open up a can 'o worms.
>I don't know if you consider this a mailscanner bug or misuse on my
>part, but it did choke sendmail.

I guess it's really a bug, but it's a pretty minor one :-)
The trouble is that it has taken many attempts and a lot of work to make
all versions of Perl accept the regular expressions I have to use in
AppendHeader() and ReplaceHeader(), I am extremely reluctant to change them.

How about you set the message to be "." or something like that?

Personally, I would recommend advising your users that this extra header in
their mail messages is there to assure them that the mail has been
virus-checked, and that they should be wary of any email message they see
that does not have this header in it. If you sell it right, they should end
up being grateful for it. They certainly will the first time they get a
message that had a virus in it!


>** Jeff A. Earickson, Ph.D                         PHONE: 207-872-3659
>** Senior UNIX Sysadmin, Information Technology    EMAIL: jaearick at colby.edu
>** Colby College, 4214 Mayflower Hill,               FAX: 207-872-3076
>** Waterville ME, 04901-8842
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>On Fri, 26 Jul 2002, Julian Field wrote:
>
> > Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 15:23:43 +0100
> > From: Julian Field <mailscanner at ECS.SOTON.AC.UK>
> > Reply-To: MailScanner mailing list <MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
> > To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> > Subject: Re: null "Clean Header" multi-times gags sendmail
> >
> > I've never know anyone not want to tell their users that a message is
> clean.
> > If you don't mark it as clean, how is the recipient supposed to know
> > whether it has been scanned or not?
> > Setting this configuration option to nothing seems a mite strange to me...
> >
> > At 14:39 26/07/2002, you wrote:
> > >Julian,
> > >
> > >Setup:
> > >------
> > >Solaris 8, sendmail 8.12.5, mailscanner 3.22-7, Sophos, spamassassin
> > >
> > >MailScanner Config Setting that triggers the problem:
> > >-----------------------------------------------------
> > >Changing the mailscanner.conf line
> > >    Clean Header       = Found to be clean
> > >to just be
> > >    Clean Header       =
> > >ie, nothing after the equals sign.  Putting something after the
> > >equals sign fixes the problem, but there's a bug here.
> > >
> > >The Problem:
> > >------------
> > >Running a piece of email thru mailscanner multiple times
> > >with a blank "clean header" setup causes sendmail to give the following
> > >syslog complaints:
> > >
> > >SYSERR(root): readqf: ./qf.....: incomplete queue file read
> > >
> > >Any piece of email in /var/spool/mqueue generating this complaint will
> > >not be delivered by sendmail, but just sit there -- stuck.
> > >
> > >Analysis:
> > >---------
> > >I spent some time staring at the qf files for multi-scanned messages
> > >that ended up in /var/spool/mqueue, for both messages with a blank and
> > >nonblank "Clean Header" settings.  For a blank "Clean Header" line,
> > >the bottom of the qf file looked like:
> > >
> > >H??X-MailScanner: , .
> > >
> > >For a qf file with a nonblank "Clean Header = ftbc" line, the bottom
> of the
> > >file looked like:
> > >
> > >H??X-MailScanner: ftbc, ftbc
> > >.
> > >
> > >Note the placement of the period, which signifies to sendmail where the
> > >end of the qf file is supposed to be.  For the blank header, it does not
> > >end up by itself as the last line, hence sendmail complains that the queue
> > >file is incomplete.  I found that I could unjam the problem qf files in
> > >my queue by editing them and sticking a period at the bottom, then
> > >rerunning the queue on that message by hand to get it delivered.  And
> > >of course I can chase this problem away by making sure that "Clean
> > >Header" is not empty.  But this looks like a mailscanner bug -- it puts
> > >the final period in the wrong place for multi-scanned messages and an
> > >empty "clean headers" setting.
> > >
> > >** Jeff A. Earickson, Ph.D                         PHONE: 207-872-3659
> > >** Senior UNIX Sysadmin, Information Technology    EMAIL:
> jaearick at colby.edu
> > >** Colby College, 4214 Mayflower Hill,               FAX: 207-872-3076
> > >** Waterville ME, 04901-8842
> > >-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > --
> > Julian Field                Teaching Systems Manager
> > jkf at ecs.soton.ac.uk         Dept. of Electronics & Computer Science
> > Tel. 023 8059 2817          University of Southampton
> >                              Southampton SO17 1BJ
> >

--
Julian Field                Teaching Systems Manager
jkf at ecs.soton.ac.uk         Dept. of Electronics & Computer Science
Tel. 023 8059 2817          University of Southampton
                             Southampton SO17 1BJ