Hi -

I am using a RedHat Enterprise Linux 3.0ES which has several domains running on it. Everything was running smoothly till up2date upgraded the sendmail to "Sendmail version 8.12.11.20060308".

On one of the websites at www.domain.co.uk, we were using the sendmail -f option to send an email "from" the user's email address, e.g. user@aol.com to us at info@domain.co.uk. After the upgrade, this has stopped working. Surprisingly, emails sent from info@domain.co.uk to info@domain.co.uk still work. I am confused with this strange behaviour.

Would be extremely grateful if someone can advise a fix for this issue. I have listed below certain lines from the maillog to support the above problem. [Please note: real domain name has been replaced by "domain"]

-- this does NOT work --

Apr 12 14:14:29 ns sendmail[23637]: k3CDETSg023637: Authentication-Warning: ns.server.co.uk: apache set sender to user@aol.com using -f

Apr 12 14:14:29 ns sendmail[23637]: k3CDETSg023637: from=user@aol.com, size=3919, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200604121314.k3CDETSg023637@ns.server.co.uk>, relay=apache@localhost

Apr 12 14:14:30 ns sendmail[23639]: k3CDEUXq023639: from=<user@aol.com>, size=4244, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200604121314.k3CDETSg023637@ns.server.co.uk>, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=localhost [127.0.0.1]

Apr 12 14:14:30 ns sendmail[23637]: k3CDETSg023637: to=info@domain.co.uk, ctladdr=user@aol.com (48/48), delay=00:00:01, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=33919, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (k3CDEUXq023639 Message accepted for delivery)

Apr 12 14:14:30 ns sendmail[23641]: k3CDEUXq023639: to=<info@domain.co.uk>,delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, pri=34244, relay=mx2.netbenefit.co.uk. [212.53.64.42], dsn=5.1.1, stat=User unknown

Apr 12 14:14:30 ns sendmail[23641]: k3CDEUXq023639: k3CDEUXq023641: DSN: User unknown

Note: MX records for domain.co.uk held at netbenefit ISP

-----

Surprisingly, if there was an issue with info@domain.co.uk, then the following should not work too. But guess what, it does ..

-- this works --

Apr 12 15:30:44 ns sendmail[24702]: k3CEUiHC024702: Authentication-Warning: ns.server.co.uk: apache set sender to info@domain.co.uk using -f

Apr 12 15:30:44 ns sendmail[24702]: k3CEUiHC024702: from=info@domain.co.uk,size=1118, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200604121430.k3CEUiHC024702@ns.server.co.uk>, relay=apache@localhost

Apr 12 15:30:44 ns sendmail[24704]: k3CEUiTu024704: from=<info@domain.co.uk>, size=1450, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<200604121430.k3CEUiHC024702@ns.server.co.uk>, proto=ESMTP, daemon=MTA, relay=localhost [127.0.0.1]

Apr 12 15:30:44 ns sendmail[24702]: k3CEUiHC024702: to=info@domain.co.uk, ctladdr=info@domain.co.uk (48/48), delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=relay, pri=31118, relay=[127.0.0.1] [127.0.0.1], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (k3CEUiTu024704 Message accepted for delivery)

Apr 12 15:30:44 ns sendmail[24706]: k3CEUiTu024704: to=<info@domain.co.uk>,delay=00:00:00, xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=esmtp, pri=31450, relay=mx1.netbenefit.co.uk. [212.53.64.41], dsn=2.0.0, stat=Sent (OK id=1FTgMm-0004JP-VV)

-----

Please help ! We would like to be able to receive emails from user@aol.com or any other domain as before because these emails are sent from our website as notifications and our users are genuine.


Thanks and regards
mighlani

This is for someone with a similar problem.

I had to contact the netbenefit ISP and get their maillog to find out why it was rejecting the messages.

2006-04-12 14:25:58 H=ns.server.co.uk [ip address]:32974
I=[212.53.64.41]:25 F=<user@aol.com> rejected RCPT
<info@domain.co.uk>: aol.com sender, but not from aol.com relay (SPF).

That was it. Its the new sendmail Sender Policy Framework (SPF) which caused the rejection of our emails. Basically, you just cannot change the sender address using -f if the domain's A or MX records are not held at your server. We have now changed the sender address from user's to general@domain.co.uk

Hope it helps someone with similar problem.