Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (5130 mails)

[Jim Flanagan <linuxjim@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Sandy Drobic wrote:
> Jim Flanagan wrote:
> > Sandy Drobic wrote:
> > > Jim Flanagan wrote:
> > > > Ulf Rasch wrote:
> > > > > Jim Flanagan wrote:
> > > > > <snip>
> > > > >  
> > > > > > <linuxjim@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> > > > > > 24.238.237.18 failed after I sent the message.
> > > > > > Remote host said: 550 Error: improper use of 8-bit data in 
> > > > > > message body
> > > > > >     
> > > > > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > That should be the reason. Have a look at the settings of your MUA
> > > > > (email client).
> > > > >
> > > > > Ulf
> > > > >
> > > > >   
> > > > Hi Ulf,
> > > >
> > > > I don't understand what you mean here. I did notice that part you 
> > > > quoted, but I don't know what it means. What bearing would my email 
> > > > client have on a message being bounced by apparently my server? 
> > > > These are not messages I've sent.
> > >
> > > That would be typical for a Postfix/Cyrus setup where Cyrus would 
> > > reject the mail when it is not correctly encoded, let's say, a 
> > > subjectline with extended characters.
> > > Postfix has restrictions that will reject such mails.
> > >
> > > strict_8bitmime
> > > strict_8bitmime_body
> > >
> > > Check your mail log /var/log/mail for the error message and check 
> > > the output of "postconf -n" for these settings.
> > >
> > > Sandy
> > Thanks everyone for the pointers. Yes, the test message did not 
> > bounce, but two of the original OP messages did. The same thing 
> > happened on some of the spamassassin list mails as well with the same 
> > error message.
> >
> > postconf -n returns...
> > strict_8bitmime = yes
> > strict_rfc821_envelopes = no
> >
> > No mention of   strict_8bitmime_body   listed.
> >
> > I believe this is standard Suse postfix setup, I did not change this 
> > setting. I am using Cyrus IMAP, does this have any bearing on this 
> > matter?
>
> Could be. You need to find out exactly which application has rejected 
> the mail. Check your logs. Postfix logs to /var/log/mail as default, 
> Cyrus to /var/log/messages.
>
> Cyrus can also reject messages:
>
>  reject8bit: 0
>             If enabled, lmtpd rejects messages with 8-bit charac-
>             ters in the headers.  Otherwise, 8-bit characters are
>             changed to 'X'.   (A  proper  solution  to  non-ASCII
>             characters  in headers is offered by RFC 2047 and its
>             predecessors.)
>
> Do you use amavisd-new perhaps? That one could probably also reject 
> mails in such a way. Without the log message that will tell exactly 
> what application caused the rejection it is a bit difficult.
>
> > Will changing strict_8bitmime = no in /etc/postfix/main.cf (and 
> > postfix reload) likely fix this problem? Any repercussions with Cyrus?
>
> I recommend to set "reject8bit: no" in /etc/imapd.conf. Though that 
> still is no explanation for the rejection with the bad mail body mime 
> encoding.
> That would only resolve bad header lines.
>
> > Also, if you have time, what is the purpose of making this setting to 
> > yes? I take it that it prevents malformed email of some sort. But 
> > what is the drawback to not having this check set to strict? What are 
> > the known sloppy email clients (er, Outlook Express??!!).
>
> The sloppiest ones are probably web applications where sometimes some 
> parts of created mails are not correctly encoded.
OK, I've made no changes to my config files so far. Searching logs I 
found the following in /var/log/mail...

------------
Apr 15 15:20:51 cammee postfix/smtpd[27154]: connect from lists.suse.de[195.135.221.131]
Apr 15 15:20:51 cammee postfix/smtpd[27154]: A481F2FF14: client=lists.suse.de[195.135.221.131]
Apr 15 15:20:51 cammee postfix/cleanup[27161]: A481F2FF14: message-id=<E1FUrG2-0002Q6-Bt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Apr 15 15:20:51 cammee postfix/cleanup[27161]: A481F2FF14: reject: mime-error improper use of 8-bit data in 
  message body: ?In the last two years I have seen it go from, ?well let?s look at what from 
  lists.suse.de[195.135.221.131]; from=<suse-linux-e-return-267899-linuxjim=jjfiii.com@xxxxxxxx> 
  to=<linuxjim@xxxxxxxxxx>
Apr 15 15:20:52 cammee postfix/smtpd[27154]: disconnect from lists.suse.de[195.135.221.131]

-----------

I don't understand fully what this means, other than a curory understanding. To me it seems postfix rejected
this message. There is not corresponding entry in /var/log/messages for this same date/time, unless that log uses UTC 
or another time zone. 

I do use amavisd-new, with clamav and freshclam. That puts many many messages in /var/spool/amavis/virusmail dir. I've 
since deleted them all for that time frame. Not sure why they are going in there, except that every one I've manually
checked so far has a .gif file attached to it. I'm using spamassassin and cyrus sieve to filter the ones that don't get 
put in virusmail dir. 

Not sure what else you would need to see. Will be happy to supply more log info if you need it.