Hi Ralf, hope you don't have to much a mess with your sendmail config... ;) On 24-Nov-00 ralf.vroomen@itplus.nl wrote:
define (`confPRIVACY_FLAGS',`authwarnings,needmailhelo,novrfy,noexpn,noetrn,noverb ')dnl
in your linux.mc file in /etc/mail and change it to:
"define (`confPRIVACY_FLAGS',`needmailhelo,novrfy,noexpn,noetrn,noverb')dnl"
Doesn't this just disable the warnings? If so... are they safe to ignore?
Yes, you are right, this disables the warnings. Wether this is safe or not depends on your configuration and the way you use your mail server. According to Costales and Allman and their excellent book "Sendmail - 2nd edition (O'Reilly), $35.10.35) there are six reasons for sendmail to include the X-Authentication-Warnings in the header: 1.) Processed by *user* with -C *file* Some other user (other than root) with the name *user* tried to run sendmail with the -C switch which reads an other configuration file instead of the usual /etc/sendmail.cf. 2.) *user* set sender to *other* using -f Some user with the name *user* tried to alter his sender-identity to *other* (and *user* was not listed as a trusted on with the T-configuration command). 3.) *user* owned process doing -bs A user with the name *user* other than root tried to receive a mail message via its standard input/output, and this user is not listed with the T-configuration command. 4.) Processed from queue dir Some user other than root used a sendmail switch like -oQ to process mail from a queue other than assigned with the QueueDirectory option. 5.) Host *name1* claimed to be *name2* In the HELO message of an SMTP conversation the remote host *name1* specified its canonical name as *name2*, and the two did not match. This mostly is due to a misconfigured dns or an attempt to spoof the local sendmail. 6.) Host *name* didn't use HELO protocol During an SMTP conversation, HELO has not been used by the sender. This sometimes indicates a manual SMTP-connection where someone just forgot to enter the HELO, or a misconfigured mail server (on the remote part). In your case it's entry no. 5 which may give you trouble; check your dns setup for your localhost and the main zone-files of your domain(s).
m>m4 linux.mc >sendmail.cf
and copy this new sendmail.cf to /etc. Now...
Aaaaah.. and have my sendmail.cf screwed up!
Needless to say that you should make a backup of your original sendmail.cf!
Alternatively, change the appropriate lines in linux.mc and run /sbin/SuSEconfig (which installs a new sendmail.cf in case linux.mc has changed).
I don't use SuSEconfig to create my sendmail configuration. I have a cf generated not by linux.mc:)
Can't I change "O PrivacyOptions=authwarnings" inside sendmail.cf to "O PrivacyOptions="? [...]
Of course you can, but this would do the same than my suggestion, it disables
the authwarnings completely. IMO it's easier and more convenient to generate a
"master mc-file" for your domain(s) and create your sendmail.cf from it. The
sendmail.cf, unlike the macro files (.mc) definitely is not "for human
consumption", it's optimized for being read by sendmail.
Consider buying the sendmail book ("the one with the bat") mentioned above for a
more in-depth information about sendmail an its configuration:
Sendmail - 2nd Edition
by Bryan Costales, with Eric Allman
O'Reilly - ISBN 1-56592-222-0 (original english version), about $40
Some online ressources:
http://www.sendmail.org/~ca/email/doc8.9/op.html
http://www.misthaven.demon.co.uk/mist/noframes/sendmail.html
Hope it helps.
Boris