I'm having what may be a problem with postfix.

I'm seeing random rejects with IP address unknown in the log.
I'm running centos7-final with amavisd.

When I do a manual whois the IP address is recognised
the ones I've tested have a correct rdns and are not new.
(ie well propagated)

Other mail comes through fine - it just seems to happen
on random addresses.
The "hello" listed seems correct too.

It never happens to people who regularly email me
so presumably all config is ok.

Can anyone shed any light on this please?
(Its been a long term issue - no recent changes)

Further investigation shows the probable cause.

Postfix rejects as unknown IP addresses that have malformed DNS or MX records
in addition to malformed source email addresses.

It seems there are many badly configured DNS records out there.

If your mail is often ignored or bounced it may be worth checking your DNS.

I don't know postfix, but I have to ask: Does it, or any MTA, do rejection as described? Sending IPs do not have to have an MX record, AFAIK. MX records are for receiving IPs.
Certainly I reject many IPs, most by rejecting entire netblocks (don't try to email me from China), but my MTA's not doing it by itself.

I think we need to see some log entries, or configuration files, or rejected IPs...I don't believe that these are "native" postfix rejections (but see my first sentence). I'm also wondering what the OP means by "malformed DNS"

1 members found this post helpful.

Does your postfix config include reject_unknown_client_hostname?

And I agree...

Without seeing your postfix configuration and/or an actual example from your log (IP/host redacted if desired), it is impossible to provide a definitive answer.

I gave you the answer above.
You can find it in the postfix docs.
(I cant recall the page sorry)

If it's not impacting your users, and you're getting no complaints, then your issue is resolved.

One can stop a lot of spam by rejecting IPs with no rDNS, for example, but if your customer has lots of customers whose mail comes from servers with no rDNS, it doesn't work to use that for spam blocking.

The other downside of applying a rule as described is that you never know what email is being rejected, so you don't know if it's important. I found out about my customer's customers because blocking email with no rDNS caused almost all their customer's email to BOUNCE, causing them to complain to my customer, who then complained to me.