Re: [Exim] HELO syntax checking in Exim 4

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Author: John W Baxter
Date:  
To: Exim Users Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Exim] HELO syntax checking in Exim 4
At 15:37 -0500 3/14/2002, Greg A. Woods wrote:
>[ On Thursday, March 14, 2002 at 15:09:36 (-0500), Dean Brooks wrote: ]
>> Subject: [Exim] HELO syntax checking in Exim 4
>>
>> Exim 4 appears to only allow me to turn off helo syntax checking
>> completely with the "helo_accept_junk_hosts" item. However, I really
>> don't want to do that either.
>
>You can't still have your cake and have eaten it too! If you're going
>to reject hosts with syntax errors in their HELO/EHLO greeting parameter
>then you have to reject those using underscores with equal prejudice to
>those who don't include a valid parent domain name. Both are equally
>bad and equally commonly misused.



On the other hand, I'm not able to convince the United States Navy that
nh_bremerton.and.so.on.mil is invalid. (We have the same problem with the
way we built Squid, which is where we ran into the bad name at our friends
at US Naval Hospital, Bremerton, WA.)

After all, _ has only been invalid since sometime in the 1980s in the host
name. Too recent for the Navy to notice.

Invalid use of _ in this context is fairly common and isn't necessarily
nefarious.

  --John
--
John Baxter   jwblist@???      Port Ludlow, WA, USA