topic Re: masking any os mail id to one specific external mail id in Operating System - OpenVMS

masking any os mail id to one specific external mail id

Ronald Y. Salem — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:41:16 GMT

Hello,

Is it possible to mask the OpenVMS mail id to a specific external mail ID?

For example:

OpenVMS mail id for user SYSTEM will be: system@abc.com (node name is ABC)

From this mail id, can i mask it to xyz@yahoo.com?

This means that everytime I send mail from OpenVMS mail using system account to external, it would appear to the recipient the mail id xyz@yahoo.com and not the mail id system@abc.com.

I hope someone have done this before in OpenVMS. I hope to receive reply soon.
Thanks.

Re: masking any os mail id to one specific external mail id

Ian Miller. — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:28:06 GMT

What email software and tcp/ip stack are you using?

Do you need to set the reply to address or hide the sender address completely?

Re: masking any os mail id to one specific external mail id

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:28:50 GMT

Doing it.

define(/sys) tcpip$smtp_from "xyz@yahoo.com"

Wim

Re: masking any os mail id to one specific external mail id

labadie_1 — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:38:32 GMT

As Wim says, you can fake your email, but the RFC 822 headers will still show from where you come.

Re: masking any os mail id to one specific external mail id

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:34:00 GMT

In outlook 2003 take options (when mail is open) and you'll see the headers.

It will say X-VMS-True-From: system@abc.com.

Wim

Re: masking any os mail id to one specific external mail id

Hoff — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:58:37 GMT

{{This means that everytime I send mail from OpenVMS mail using system account to external, it would appear to the recipient the mail id xyz@yahoo.com and not the mail id system@abc.com.}}}

Recognize that this is indistinguishable from spam, and will trigger many spam filters. It's a been common technique of spammers, and one that can be detected and flagged.

You can send mail from your authorized server (eg: SMTP servers designated via DNS SPF), certainly, and you can certainly forge your address within your domain, but you may or may not appreciate the results and the forgery might or might not provide what you really need.

I well understand the technical portion of the question here -- and the "from" logical is a good approach toward one typical end -- but what is the background on the problem you look to solve here? Not how you are looking to solve it as described here, but the problem itself? Why are you forging your return address?

I might well look to send email via a server, or via POP3 or IMAP and ESMTP or such to a designated server, for instance. Or via direct communications a designated internal web server or other host-to-host network traffic or such, depending on what you're up to. I might well look to connect into Yahoo, for instance, and really send Yahoo mail from a Yahoo domain.

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs LLC

Re: masking any os mail id to one specific external mail id

John Gillings — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:34:04 GMT

Ronald,

The logical name tcpip$smtp_from can be used to specify a "from" address, but it can also be blocked by the system manager to block spoofing.

SMTP has provision for a "reply to" address, so the mail can have a legitimate "from" address, but anyone using REPLY will send the the requested reply address. I'm not sure if there's a simple way to specify it for mail sent with the MAIL command.

You can also use TCPIP$SMTP_SFF to send mail, using a file that contains the correct mail headers, which include explicitly specifying the "from" address. See the TCPIP documentation for details.

Re: masking any os mail id to one specific external mail id

Ronald Y. Salem — Thu, 08 May 2008 03:52:45 GMT

Thanks for all the reply.
Just a follow up question:

Do you know where to define in SMTP mail service the relay host "xrelay.xit.cbm.com"?

Re: masking any os mail id to one specific external mail id

Ronald Y. Salem — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:15:09 GMT

Thanks... I got the solution already.