null "Clean Header" multi-times gags sendmail
Gene LeDuc
leduc at CTS.COM
Fri Jul 26 19:39:52 IST 2002
Rats, back to lurking...
On Friday 26 July 2002 09:29 am, Julian wrote:
> I'm afraid that isn't how it is implemented at all. Nice try though... :)
>
> At 17:10 26/07/2002, you wrote:
> >My take on this is that it is a minor bug in MS. It seems like the
> > routine is printing the "X-MailScanner: " amd then printing the result
> > with an endline. Would it fix the problem if you printed the newline
> > after the result is printed? If this is unclear, I'm thinking of
> > something like:
> >
> >print "X-MailScanner: ";
> >if [ $ok ] then { print "$ok_string" }
> > else { print "$dirty_string" }
> >print "\n";
> >
> >instead of
> >
> >print "X-MailScanner: ";
> >if [ $ok ] then { print "$ok_string\n" }
> > else { print "$dirty_string\n" }
> >
> >I haven't looked at the code at all, but the description of the qf files
> > would match my guess as to the code logic.
> >
> >On Friday 26 July 2002 08:22 am, Julian wrote:
> > > 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
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