Error with sendmail cannot open /etc/mail/sendmail.cw:

[Santiago Flores]

Hello.

I have two rp7400 with HP-UX 11.11 in Cluster.
I can use sendmail in the first server but in the second one i get the next error message:

cluster02:/etc->sendmail -v my_email@any.com

/etc/mail/sendmail.cf: line 0: WARNING: World writable directory /etc
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf: line 691: fileclass: cannot open /etc/mail/sendmail.cw: World writable directory

I looked for the process but it was not runnig, so i tryed to start it with the command
/sbin/init.d/sendmail start

But it does not start

Before this I compared the first node of the cluster file's

/etc/mail/sendmail.cf
/etc/mail/sendmail.cw

with the same files on the second node, i found differences only in the node name and the sendmail daemon process id .

Also I read the /var/admin/syslog/mail.log file and i found that the second node has had the same problem since it was installed.

I hope your answers

Thanks....

[Steven E. Protter]

Can you upload the error message please.

What does /etc/nsswtich.conf file look at.

On the security standpoint, the directory /etc/mail should not be world writable.

There should be error messages in /var/admin/syslog/syslog.log when the sendmail daemon doesn't start, you should look there and post them up.

Same problem on both boxes means its probably related to network configuration.

Seeing the errors would really help in this case.

P

[Uday_S_Ankolekar]

Check the permission of /etc/mail directory and sendmail.* files in that directory.

Looks like a permission issue.
Match the permission on both the nodes on cluster

-USA..

[Santiago Flores]

THE ERROR MESSAGE IS

/etc/mail/sendmail.cf: line 0: WARNING: World writable directory /etc
/etc/mail/sendmail.cf: line 691: fileclass: cannot open /etc/mail/sendmail.cw: World writable directory

The /etc/mail/* files have the same permissions in both servers but one can run sendmail and the other cannot.

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Santiago,


What the error is complaining about is the perms on /etc

/etc should be
dr-xr-xr-x (555) bin:bin

It's a security threat for /etc to be world writable as there's nothing in there that comman users need to write. It's all config type stuff that ONLY root should be able to write.

Suspect that if both systems have perms on /etc the same, then you have diff sendmail vers & the newer is the complainer.
Sendmail has been steadily hardening itself thru the years.

Rgds,
Jeff

[W.C. Epperson]

Jeff is on the mark. This paranoia was built into sendmail as of version 8.9. It can be overridden with the DontBlameSendmail directive in sendmail.cf. See http://www.sendmail.org/tips/DontBlameSendmail.html

[Mark Greene_1]

/etc/mail/sendmail.cw should have read-only permissions for owner, group, and all (444) and have both owner and group set to bin.

The /etc/mail directory should have read-execute permissions across the board (555), and also have both owner and group set to bin.

HTH
mark

[tliddle]

I had the same problem and after looking at all of your replies, I was able to fix the error as /etc had the wrong permissions... dang sendmail... ;)

Thank you all for responding to the first request for help - it helped me to and I'm greatful for your assistance.

Have a wonderful day!

Tom