[16717] in Athena Bugs
sendmail incorrectly strips ".mit.edu"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (mhpower@MIT.EDU)
Thu Feb 18 23:29:03 1999
From: <mhpower@MIT.EDU>
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 23:29:04 -0500
To: bugs@MIT.EDU, linux-dev@MIT.EDU
With the Athena client sendmail configuration (or at least, the
sendmail configuration on contents-vnder-pressvre.mit.edu and a
default-configuration Linux-Athena 5.2 machine), if the address
"test6397@offshore.ai.mit.edu" is in the "To:" line of a message, and
the message is sent using "sendmail -t -v", the SMTP conversation
shows that "RCPT To:<test6397@offshore.ai>" is sent to the MIT
mailhub. Although the bounce message doesn't show where the MIT
mailhub tried to send the mail, I would guess it is the host
"offshore.ai" (which exists) since "offshore.ai.mit.edu" doesn't exist
and therefore would not be able to produce a "User unknown" message.
I think the sendmail configuration should be altered so that, if I try
to send mail to offshore.ai.mit.edu, the client sendmail and MIT
mailhub sendmail cooperate to tell me something of the form "Host
unknown" rather than guess that I'd like the mail sent to Anguilla.
The problem is worse in Linux-Athena 5.2 because there is an optional
configuration file direct.cf that can be used in place of sendmail.cf
if one does not wish to send via the MIT mailhubs. Here, the client
machine will strip out the ".mit.edu" and then proceed to try to
deliver mail to the remaining address. This means, for example, that
trying to send mail to a valid "@life.ai.mit.edu" address will fail
with a "Name server: life.ai: host not found" error.
Matt
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Date: Thu, 18 Feb 99 22:41:21 EST
From: MAILER-DAEMON@MIT.EDU (Mail Delivery Subsystem)
Subject: Returned mail: User unknown
Message-Id: <9902190341.AA00758@MIT.EDU>
To: <mhpower@MIT.EDU>
----- Transcript of session follows -----
>>> RCPT To:<test6397@offshore.ai>
<<< 550 <test6397@offshore.ai>... User unknown
550 <test6397@offshore.ai>... User unknown
----- Unsent message follows -----
Received: from CONTENTS-VNDER-PRESSVRE.MIT.EDU by MIT.EDU with SMTP
id AA00752; Thu, 18 Feb 99 22:41:21 EST
From: mhpower@MIT.EDU
Received: by contents-vnder-pressvre.mit.edu (8.8.7/4.7) id WAA22647; Thu, 18 Feb 1999 22:41:29 -0500 (EST)
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 22:41:29 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <199902190341.WAA22647@contents-vnder-pressvre.mit.edu>
To: test6397@offshore.ai.mit.edu
Subject: test
test
------- End of Forwarded Message
