On Tue, 11 Nov 2003, Praedor Atrebates wrote:

> As I was sitting here staring at "tail -f /var/log/syslog" I saw my
> chkrootkit anacronjob fly by.  At the end of the check, I noticed an
> email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]  An outtake from my syslog post
> chkrootkit:
[snip]
> Sending email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] will fail and go to nobody.  What is
> actually sending this message and where do I find the config file so I
> can correct it to send messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]

It is probably anacron, mailing you (root) the output of your job. While
it is unclear from the anacron docs whether or not it will work, you might
try adding a line near the top of your /etc/anacrontab file like:

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

If anacron can use that variable the way cron does, this should fix it.  
Also, as Jack suggested, you really should edit /etc/postfix/aliases to
point root's mail to a valid local user or to an external address; after
doing this, you will need to run "postalias", then "postfix reload", for
the change to take effect. This bit is on the last line in the "stock"
aliases file, BTW. This alone may not be enough, however - see below.

> Is it postfix itself?  In order to avoid having the mandrake list bounce
> all my mails back at me, I had to setup my local postfix to set
> "myorigin = yahoo.com".  If I set it to be my actual localdomain
> (ravenhome.net) I will lose the ability to post to the expert list.  Is
> this [EMAIL PROTECTED] originating from postfix via this "myorigin"
> setting?

That is a safe bet, as it appends that to all emails sent from the local
system without a "From:" address that includes an "@somewhere" suffix,
including those ones. It also appends it to the "To:" header for all mail
sent to any local user by username alone. This means that even if you have
an alias set up for root's mail, that may not fix this problem - postfix
won't realize that "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" really means "[EMAIL PROTECTED]", so the
alias table will likely not be consulted; even if it were, the setting
there would probably have to point to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]", rather than just
"user", or postfix will just translate "user" to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" ... :(

Since $myorigin is probably not in your "mydestination =" line, postfix
then tried to send it onward to yahoo.com's MX server. Putting that into
"mydestination =" would prevent you from mailing to anyone who actually
*is* at yahoo.com (as postfix would then try to deliver it locally, and
fail), so it's clear that this little hack of yours has its drawbacks. ;)

The reason that the list will not accept mail from you directly may be
because while ravenhome.net is a valid domain, you do not have an MX
record set up for it; it might be rejecting it on that basis alone (though
I doubt it). As your system (or your router, as the case may be) is up and
answering pings at the moment, but not accepting SMTP connections, the
latter may be being blocked by your ISP, or if not there, then by your
postfix configuration, or perhaps by your firewall. This would definitely
keep the list from accepting [EMAIL PROTECTED] as a valid address, as you
cannot receive mail back from the list at that address under your current
setup. This reason seems the more likely of the two, IMHO, as MX records
are considered optional for domains where the domain's A record points to
the IP address where the mail server is running. Of course, if your system
isn't always on, just having it accept SMTP connections when it is isn't
enough; at the very least, you would also need to define a backup MX host,
for those times when your system is unavailable.

Even if your ISP blocks incoming SMTP connects, TIMTOWTDI, of course ...

Since you own the domain, you may benefit from moving the DNS for it from
dyndns.org to ZoneEdit (http://www.zoneedit.com), which also provides free
dynamic DNS for up to five domains. One of the advantages of that provider
is their MailForward service (also free), which would allow you to have it
forward [EMAIL PROTECTED] to any other valid e-mail address (and you can
have as many of these as you need, so [EMAIL PROTECTED] can point to an
entirely different address, or to the same one that xxx does - most other
free DNS services don't offer quite this much flexibility). Assuming that
the mail at the address you forward to can be retrieved by using either
POP3 or IMAP, you can then have fetchmail poll for the mail, and deliver
it into your local mail spool. That's how I do it here.

This allows you to set "myorigin = ravenhome.net" and to include $myorigin
in your "mydestination =" line, which prevents little problems like these.
I send mail directly to the list with no trouble, and mail from the list
goes by way of ZoneEdit to an address provided by my ISP, and fetchmail
just pulls it in from there. Works like a charm. If you're interested in
setting up a config like mine, I'd be happy to help out in any way I can.

And just about anything beats using a spam magnet like Yahoo for any real
purpose, other than perhaps as a "throwaway" address ... ;)

HTH!

-- 
Bill Mullen   [EMAIL PROTECTED]   MA, USA   RLU #270075   MDK 8.1 & 9.0
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