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Re: Changing the "return path" on sending email

 
TheJuiceman
Super Advisor

Changing the "return path" on sending email

Hey gang,

I need to find a way to set the return path when sending out emails. The problem we are having is that when an email fails, the error message is trying to send to the return path of the message. The problem is that the return path is not a legitimate email address (as it is being assembled from user ID's instead of actual email addresses). How can I change this? Hopefully the following will explain this better....

This is the heading from a typical email...

X-Apparently-To: recipient@yahoo.com via 12.34.567.89; Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:31:17 -0700
Return-Path:
X-YMailISG: .....
X-Originating-IP: [98.76.54.321]
Authentication-Results: mta1067.mail.sk1.yahoo.com from=ourdomain.com; domainkeys=neutral (no sig); from=ourdomain.com; dkim=neutral (no sig)
Received: from 127.0.0.1 (EHLO ourdomain.com) (98.76.54.321) by mta1067.mail.sk1.yahoo.com with SMTP; Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:31:17 -0700
Received: from ourserver.ourdomain.com ([xx.xxx.xx.xxx]) by ourdomain.com with ESMTP; Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:31:09 -0400
Received: from ourserver.ourdomain.com (smmsp@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ourserver.ourdomain.com (@(#)Sendmail version 8.13.3 - Revision 1.007 - 3 February 2010/8.13.3) with ESMTP id o3LIUu58014637 for ; Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:30:56 -0400 (EDT)
Received: (from root@localhost) by ourserver.ourdomain.com (@(#)Sendmail version 8.13.3 - Revision 1.007 - 3 February 2010/8.13.3/Submit) id o3LIUuQA014636 for recipient@yahoo.com; Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:30:56 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:30:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: Me Add sender to Contacts
Message-Id: <201004211830.o3LIUuQA014636@ourserver.ourdomain.com>
Content-Length: 3

If you look above, the "Return-Path:" is "user@our.domain.com". However, that is not a true address. The "user" is the login ID for the user. Their actual address would be something like "firstname.lastname@ourdomain.com".

Due to this problem, whenever a message fails to send to a recipient, no notification of the error is received to the sender.

Since the "From" is being set, the recipient can reply to the message and send a reply to the correct address.

Whenever a problem with an email occurs (invalid address, etc), the path is incorrect to notify the sender that there was a problem (due to the Return-Path)

How can I correct this problem? Thanks.
19 REPLIES 19
Steven E. Protter
Exalted Contributor

Re: Changing the "return path" on sending email

Shalom,

There is no way for a message to be returned back to a system if the system is a sender.

If the above scenario is true, your system is trying to send an email to yahoo. Any bounce is not going to make it through a Corporate firewall back to the system. For very good reasons your server infrastructure should not be receiving let alone processing inbound mail.

A way around this is to have the sender be an actual email user on your domain.

I create a mailbox called system@mydomain.com and that is the sending user on outbound system mails.

If these are really users then you can set up the following files to create outbound mail addresses that are meaningful:

/etc/mail/geneticstable
/etc/mail/virtusertable

These will translate inbound and outbound system email addresses to something that can be bounced to.

user@system.domain.com
becomes
user@domain.com

You would then need to use the m4 macro generator to generate a new sendmail.cf file.

SEP
Steven E Protter
Owner of ISN Corporation
http://isnamerica.com
http://hpuxconsulting.com
Sponsor: http://hpux.ws
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hpuxlinux
Founder http://newdatacloud.com
TTr
Honored Contributor

Re: Changing the "return path" on sending email

How do you send the emails out (from the HP-UX servers)? The mailx program has the -r option. Others mail programs may have similar settings. You may be able to use sendmail tables as well.
TheJuiceman
Super Advisor

Re: Changing the "return path" on sending email

>>I create a mailbox called system@mydomain.com and that is the sending user on outbound system mails.<<

This is an intriguing idea. How did you set up your mail to use a single email user?

Also, what would be required to create the genericstable/virtusertable? This may be another viable solution if the first is not doable.

Thank you for your help.
TTr
Honored Contributor

Re: Changing the "return path" on sending email

You did not say if you are using mailx. That would be a simple solution. If you want to look into using tables, the genericstable is for mapping outgoing users. (The virtusertable is for incoming users but in your case it applies to the main domain.com incoming mail server - is it the groupwise from your other posting? - and not the inside HP-UX servers)

You may already have the genericstable feature available, look in /etc/mail/sendmail.cf and see if you have a line
#Kgenerics dbm -o /etc/mail/genericstable
If yes, uncomment it and restart sendmail. Then you must build the genericstable file/map using a textfile and the makedbm command.
TTr
Honored Contributor

Re: Changing the "return path" on sending email

Actually I was out of sequence in the steps above. Restart sendmail at the end after creating the map and uncommenting the map-line in sendmail.cf
TheJuiceman
Super Advisor

Re: Changing the "return path" on sending email

Thank you for the responses. But maybe I did not post the question correctly.

Setting the "From" is not the issue. I need to set the "Return-Path". The Return-Path is where any errors will try to go if the mail is unsuccessful. However, messages are being sent using the login ID versus the users full name. This, being the user's ID, is an invalid address so the error message never makes it back to the source.

Even if I were able to set ALL outgoing messages to have a Return-Path from a particular place (like say "mail-errors@ourdomain.com"), then we can set up an mailbox specifically to catch failed messages.

How can I set a Return-Path on outgoing messages? Thanks again for your help!!!
TheJuiceman
Super Advisor

Re: Changing the "return path" on sending email

Is there a way to hardcode a return path so that all error messages will return to a particular email address? Thanks
Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: Changing the "return path" on sending email

> You did not say if you are using mailx.

Did you ever say exactly which program you
were using?

I haven't used sendmail for many years, so I
know nothing, but, so far as I can tell, ...

The Return-Path in the header is defined in
the sendmail configuration file
(sendmail.cf). Around here, that seems to
look like:

H?P?Return-Path: <$g>

where "$g" is (I'm told) "The sender address
relative to the recipient.". (And if I knew
what "H?P?" did, I might really be
dangerous.) So, if I wanted a different
Return-Path in a header, I'd attack this.
Replacing "$g" with a constant should be
easy. Other, more interesting things should
be possible. I assume that the headers
you're seeing agree with the stuff specified
in your current configuration file.

sendmail seems to have a "-Cfile" option,
which might let you damage your own copy of a
configuration file, instead of the normal
one.

My general plan would be to alter a sendmail
configuration file, so that it would put the
desired data into a header, and then use
sendmail itself to send the message (using
that altered configuration file).
(Naturally, I've always used a program like
mailx to do that, so I know nothing, but I
gather that, with enough command-line
options, sendmail can be persuaded to do the
job.) What with all the improved security
features of a modern sendmail (about which I
know nothing), there may be some restrictions
on who can do what in this neighborhood, but
I assume that there may be some path through
that thicket which would let you create an
e-mail header with all the phony stuff in it
which anyone could possibly want.

http://www.sendmail.org/doc/sendmail-current/doc/op/op.pdf

(It even seems to explain "H?P?".)

Naturally, "DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE! Only edit
the source .mc file." But if I could figure
out m4, too, I'd probably be making big money
somewhere, instead of wasting my time here.
But feel free to look at the ".mc" file, and
see if it's easier to damage that one. If
you dare.
TheJuiceman
Super Advisor

Re: Changing the "return path" on sending email

I edited the H?P? entry, just to see if it would work/break/whatever. No effect. I'm open to ideas. Thanks