MailScanner feature request

[Julian Field]

At 17:12 01/07/2003, you wrote:
> > For example I could do this:
> >
> > # mailscanner --lookup f
> >
>I don't understand why you would need this, isn't cat
>/etc/MailScanner/filename.rules.conf enough?  Its not like MailScanner can
>be reconfigured on the command line like iptables is (unless Julian has
>sneaked in another new feature there too!).

No I haven't.

All the iptables commands are just handy ways of editing the filtering
tables stored in the kernel. So asking the status and current settings is
easy, you just ask the kernel what it thinks.

There is no way in MailScanner of asking the running processes what state
they have stored. To do so I would have to fork off a thread in each
process to sit and listen for status requests, which would probably also
have to listen on a control port.

This opens it up to loads of nasty network attacks, requires a huge amount
of code and doesn't really provide you with much more than you can get from
cat-ing the configuration files. For things like rulesets, you would only
be able to see the compiled version of the rules anyway, which most "normal
people" can't understand anyway.

Hopefully that explains why I'm not overly keen on this idea.
All ideas are very welcome though! Some of the ones I don't like happen
anyway :-)
--
Julian Field
www.MailScanner.info
Professional Support Services at www.MailScanner.biz
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