Debian Bug report logs - #165244
postfix: postfix refuses to deliver to e-mail address starting with a dash

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Adam Kessel <adam@bostoncoop.net>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: postfix: postfix refuses to deliver to e-mail address starting with a dash

Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 18:39:45 -0400

Package: postfix
Version: 1.1.11.0-3
Severity: normal

I'm not sure how kosher e-mail addresses starting with dashes are, but they
exist on popular services (excite.com), and postfix reports back:

<-whatever@excite.com>: invalid recipient syntax: "-whatever@excite.com"

Other mailers (exim), however, do seem to properly deliver to this sort of
e-mail address.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux joehill 2.4.19-joehill.2.appletalk #1 Wed Sep 18 18:16:32 EDT 2002 i686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

Versions of packages postfix depends on:
ii  adduser                       3.48       Add and remove users and groups
ii  debconf                       1.2.10     Debian configuration management sy
ii  dpkg                          1.10.9     Package maintenance system for Deb
ii  libc6                         2.2.5-15   GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libdb3                        3.2.9-17   Berkeley v3 Database Libraries [ru
ii  libgdbmg1                     1.7.3-27.1 GNU dbm database routines (runtime
ii  netbase                       4.08       Basic TCP/IP networking system

-- debconf information:
  postfix/master_upgrade_warning: 
* postfix/mailname: bostoncoop.net
  postfix/recipient_delim: +
* postfix/main_mailer_type: Internet Site
  postfix/transport_map_warning: 
* postfix/append_dot_mydomain: false
  postfix/db2_db3_upgrade: true
  postfix/relayhost: 
  postfix/procmail: true
  postfix/bad_recipient_delimiter: 
* postfix/root_address: adam
  postfix/rfc1035_violation: false
  postfix/mynetworks: 127.0.0.0/8
* postfix/destinations: localhost
  postfix/not_configured: 
  postfix/mailbox_limit: 0

Message #10 received at 165244@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Adam Kessel <adam@bostoncoop.net>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <165244@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: postfix: allow_min_user=yes fixes problem; could be better documented or different default

Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 12:05:02 -0400

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Package: postfix
Version: 1.1.11.0-3
Followup-For: Bug #165244

Sorry for not doing all my research before bug submission!

Apparently, adding

allow_min_user = yes

to /etc/postfix/main.cf allows you to send e-mails where username begins
with a -.

This is only documented in a changelog entry, and not in the manpages or
/usr/share/doc.

I would suggest adding better documentation, or perhaps changing the
default main.cf to include this line, since -abc@def.com e-mail addresses
are apparently perfectly valid under RFC 822 and thus the default
behavior of postfix is to refuse delivery to certain valid e-mail
addresses.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux joehill 2.4.19-joehill.2.appletalk #1 Wed Sep 18 18:16:32 EDT 2002 i686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

Versions of packages postfix depends on:
ii  adduser                       3.48       Add and remove users and groups
ii  debconf                       1.2.11     Debian configuration management sy
ii  dpkg                          1.10.9     Package maintenance system for Deb
ii  libc6                         2.3.1-1    GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libdb3                        3.2.9-17   Berkeley v3 Database Libraries [ru
ii  libgdbmg1                     1.7.3-27.1 GNU dbm database routines (runtime
ii  netbase                       4.08       Basic TCP/IP networking system

-- debconf information:
  postfix/master_upgrade_warning: 
* postfix/mailname: bostoncoop.net
  postfix/recipient_delim: +
* postfix/main_mailer_type: Internet Site
  postfix/transport_map_warning: 
* postfix/append_dot_mydomain: false
  postfix/db2_db3_upgrade: true
  postfix/relayhost: 
  postfix/procmail: true
  postfix/bad_recipient_delimiter: 
* postfix/root_address: adam
  postfix/rfc1035_violation: false
  postfix/mynetworks: 127.0.0.0/8
* postfix/destinations: localhost
  postfix/not_configured: 
  postfix/mailbox_limit: 0

[Message part 2 (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #15 received at 165244@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: LaMont Jones <lamont@hp.com>

To: Adam Kessel <adam@bostoncoop.net>, 165244@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#165244: postfix: allow_min_user=yes fixes problem; could be better documented or different default

Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2002 17:32:41 -0600

On Fri, Oct 18, 2002 at 12:05:02PM -0400, Adam Kessel wrote:
> allow_min_user = yes
> This is only documented in a changelog entry, and not in the manpages or
> /usr/share/doc.

I'll forward that along to the upstream author.  It should be well
documented...

> I would suggest adding better documentation, or perhaps changing the
> default main.cf to include this line, since -abc@def.com e-mail addresses
> are apparently perfectly valid under RFC 822 and thus the default
> behavior of postfix is to refuse delivery to certain valid e-mail
> addresses.

It was a conscious decision by Wietse to disallow leading dashes, since
user names are frequently passed to programs (such as procmail), and
a malicious person could affect script behavior by altering either the
sender or recipient address.

I'll think about a debconf question to turn it on, but it will default
to what upstream has chosen.

lamont

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