Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 22 Sep 2000 13:11:51 -0700
From:      Cy Schubert - ITSD Open Systems Group <Cy.Schubert@uumail.gov.bc.ca>
To:        Neil Blakey-Milner <nbm@mithrandr.moria.org>
Cc:        security@FreeBSD.ORG, Peter Wemm <peter@netplex.com.au>
Subject:   Re: sendmail default run state 
Message-ID:  <200009222012.e8MKCRF12785@cwsys.cwsent.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 22 Sep 2000 21:56:16 %2B0200." <20000922215616.A33103@mithrandr.moria.org> 

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
In message <20000922215616.A33103@mithrandr.moria.org>, Neil 
Blakey-Milner writ
es:
> [ moved to security@ ]
> 
> > > I've had a few followup comments already.  A modification:
> > > sendmail_enable="outbound"         # choices: YES, NO, outbound
> > > sendmail_flags="-bd -q30m"         # flags for full in/out mode
> > > sendmail_outbound_flags="-q30m"    # for when $sendmail_enable="outbound"
> > > 
> > > and we set sendamil_enable="outbound" by default.  That will break the
> > > least number of people.  If people only had sendmail_enable="YES", then m
> y
> > > first proposed change would break them.
> > 
> > I think we should keep the "YES"/"NO" nature of *_enable if at all
> > possible, even if it means having to do a bit more work, or to have to
> > mention things in release notes or upgrade guides.  From a glance, it
> > seems this would be the first *_enable to take anything but "YES" or
> > "NO".
> 
> I've also noticed we'd need to teach sysinstall about it - it has toggle
> stuff for sendmail_enable at the moment.
> 
> > sendmail_enable="YES" # run the sendmail MTA
> > sendmail_outboundonly_enable="YES" # don't listen for messages from the net
> work
> > sendmail_queuetime="30" # time in minutes between re-trying queued items
> > sendmail_flags="" # additional sendmail flags
> > 
> > Then, when we call sendmail much more complexly:
> > 
> > case ${sendmail_enable} in
> > [Yy][Ee][Ss])
> > 	case ${sendmail_outbound_enable} in
> > 	[Nn][Oo] | '')
> > 		;;
> > 	*)
> > 		case ${sendmail_flags} in
> > 		*-bd*)
> > 			;;
> > 		*)
> > 			# don't add -bd if we already have it (necessary?)
> > 			sendmail_flags="${sendmail_flags} -bd"
> > 			;;
> > 		esac
> > 		;;
> > 	esac
> > 
> > 	case ${sendmail_flags} in
> > 	* -q*)
> > 		;;
> > 	*)
> > 		# only add -q if we not set in sendmail_flags
> > 		sendmail_flags="${sendmail_flags} -q${sendmail_queuetime}m"
> > 		;;
> > 	esac
> > 
> >         if [ -r /etc/mail/sendmail.cf ]; then
> >                 echo -n ' sendmail';    /usr/sbin/sendmail ${sendmail_flags
> }
> >         fi
> >         ;;
> > esac
> 
> What do others think of this? (orignally Peter's idea)
> 
> I personally would really like 'sendmail_outbound_only="YES"' to be the
> default in /etc/defaults/rc.conf, with an option in sysinstall's Network
> Services for turning it on/off.
> 
> Reason being the most common situations I see are multi-system networks,
> where you read mail on just one, and not necessarily running sendmail on
> the machine that does receives mail.  In the single-user case, also,
> people don't tend to want to allow connections.  It's more a special
> case to receive mail, and it's quite simple to flick the switch, since
> you have to set up sendmail to receive mail for your domain anyway.
> 
> Obviously this would require a heads-up to current@ when implemented,
> and a heads-up to stable@ when MFC'd, and an entry in the release notes
> and in UPDATING, and finally an entry in rc.conf(5).
> 
> Comments eagerly sought,

Good idea.  I'm not sure how many FreeBSD users use Sendmail.  I use 
Obtuse Systems Smtpd (the smtpd port) for inbound and Sendmail for 
outbound.  One can use Postfix for inbound and Sendmail for outbound as 
well.  I would guess that most people on this list probably use Qmail, 
so this may not even be an issue.  I suppose it depends on that the 
majority wants.


Regards,                       Phone:  (250)387-8437
Cy Schubert                      Fax:  (250)387-5766
Team Leader, Sun/DEC Team   Internet:  Cy.Schubert@osg.gov.bc.ca
Open Systems Group, ITSD, ISTA
Province of BC





To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200009222012.e8MKCRF12785>