Sendmail Unknown Host and world writable issue

hawk__0 · 10-13-2009, 11:57 AM

Can't start sendmail without the following errors:

Code:

 /etc/init.d/sendmail start
 * Starting Mail Transport Agent (MTA) sendmail                                 hostname: Unknown host
451 4.0.0 /etc/mail/sendmail.cf: line 106: fileclass: cannot open '/etc/mail/local-host-names': World writable directory
                                                                         [ OK ]

As you can see, /etc/mail/sendmail.cf IS writable...

Code:

/etc/mail# ls -la
total 244
drwxr-sr-x   7 smmta smmsp  4096 2009-10-13 09:47 .
drwxr-xr-x 127 root  root  12288 2009-10-13 09:53 ..
-rw-------   1 root  root   4302 2009-10-13 09:40 access
-rw-r-----   1 smmta smmsp 12288 2009-10-13 09:40 access.db
-rw-r--r--   1 root  root    281 2008-12-06 14:15 address.resolve
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root  smmsp    10 2009-09-23 12:54 aliases -> ../aliases
-rw-r-----   1 smmta smmsp 12288 2009-09-23 12:55 aliases.db
-rw-r--r--   1 root  root   3222 2009-09-23 12:54 databases
-rw-r--r--   1 root  root   5657 2008-12-06 14:18 helpfile
-rw-r--r--   1 root  smmsp    24 2009-09-23 12:54 local-host-names
drwxr-sr-x   2 smmta smmsp  4096 2009-09-23 12:54 m4
-rwxr-xr--   1 root  smmsp  9998 2009-09-23 12:54 Makefile
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  root   4096 2009-09-23 12:54 peers
drwxr-xr-x   2 root  smmsp  4096 2008-12-06 14:15 sasl
-rw-r--r--   1 root  smmsp 64454 2009-10-13 09:47 sendmail.cf
-rw-r--r--   1 root  smmsp   269 2009-09-23 12:54 sendmail.cf.errors
-rw-r--r--   1 root  root  12236 2009-09-23 12:54 sendmail.conf
-rw-r--r--   1 root  smmsp  4218 2009-09-23 12:54 sendmail.mc
-rw-r--r--   1 root  root    149 2008-12-06 14:15 service.switch
-rw-r--r--   1 root  root    180 2008-12-06 14:15 service.switch-nodns
drwxr-sr-x   2 smmta smmsp  4096 2009-09-23 12:54 smrsh
-rw-r--r--   1 root  smmsp 43986 2009-09-23 12:54 submit.cf
-rw-r--r--   1 root  smmsp  2374 2009-09-23 12:54 submit.mc
drwxr-xr-x   2 smmta smmsp  4096 2009-09-23 12:54 tls
-rw-r--r--   1 root  smmsp     0 2009-09-23 12:54 trusted-users

bathory · 10-13-2009, 12:31 PM

Hi,

To get rid of the unknown host warning add a name for your box in /etc/hosts.
Regarding the world writable issue, you have to make sure, that /etc and /etc/mail are not world writable.
If you want, you can bypass the warning using the DontBlameSendmail option, but I suggest you to try to find the real cause of the problem.

Regards