Re: [exim] envelope-from - best practices

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Author: Alexander Johannes
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: Re: [exim] envelope-from - best practices
Hi,

Am 31.01.2011 um 08:41 schrieb Dave Evans:

> On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 08:16:58AM +0100, Alexander Johannes wrote:
>> Recently i tried to subscribe to a mailing-list, which totally went
>> wrong, since the MLM tried to subscribe me with the envelope-from
>> address. So the from-header of the E-Mail stated '$SYSTEMUSER@
>> $DOMAIN', while the envelope-from stated something like 'prvs$HASH
>> $SYSTEMUSER@$HOST'. As you can see, i'm using BATV, because i've been
>> hit by backscatter in the past very badly. So even if i manage to
>> subscribe somehow to the list, i will never be able to post something
>> to it, because the envelope-from constantly changes due to BATV.
>>
>> Third: are there any other side-effects, if envelope-from and from-
>> header are not matching? I assume no, because i haven't faced any
>> problems regarding this in the last couple of years.
>>
>> Fourth: is BATV still feasible or should i consider something else?
>
> IIRC I've been using BATV for a few years now and never had any problems with
> it. Never noticed any side effects of having From != MAIL FROM, and been able
> to use (mailman) mailing lists just fine.


The problematic list-server seems to be running EZMLM, which is embedded into some does-everything-but-nothing-right-software (insert random rant about the Java-Community here...)¹.

Needless to say, that the list-owner never responded to my complaint...

> If you get no luck fixing the broken mail list server, maybe you should add
> BATV exceptions (i.e. don't sign) just for mail to that list. If you do that
> though then presumably you'll be turning off "require prvs on incoming
> bounces", which defeats the main point of it. Unless you only drop the
> prvs-signed requirement for /some/ return paths (i.e. an address you use only
> for the broken list server).


All in all, this is to much hassle - i reactivated an old gmail-account for this list, because i will read it only a couple of weeks. But thanks for the suggestion anyway.

If anyone else has some comments/insights for my other questions, this would be welcome.

Regards,

Alex

¹) http://openxource.com/xircles/technical.html