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Re: A HELO Question

2004-03-06 12:38:06
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Nathan Wharton wrote:

From what I understand, if a domain hasn't published any SPF records, or doesn't even exist, I shouldn't be getting an SPF fail on something from them. Is this right?


If it is, then that has not been my experience. If a bounce comes from a machine that has a bogus HELO, it gets an SPF fail:

Mar 4 20:30:24 mail2 postfix/policy-spf[31748]: : SPF fail: smtp_comment=Please see http://spf.pobox.com/why.html?sender=InterJet.akaerospace.com&ip=209.112.133.85&receiver=mail2.schaferhsv.com: domain of sender InterJet.akaerospace.com does not exist, header_comment=mail2.schaferhsv.com: domain of does not designate 209.112.133.85 as permitted sender Mar 4 20:30:24 mail2 postfix/smtpd[31743]: NOQUEUE: reject_warning: RCPT from aerodial.alaska.net[209.112.133.85]: 554 <protected(_at_)schaferhsv(_dot_)com>: Recipient address rejected: Please see http://spf.pobox.com/why.html?sender=InterJet.akaerospace.com&ip=209.112.133.85&receiver=mail2.schaferhsv.com: domain of sender InterJet.akaerospace.com does not exist; from=<> to=<protected(_at_)schaferhsv(_dot_)com> proto=ESMTP helo=<InterJet.akaerospace.com>

I don't think this is a configuration problem, because everything else works.

So, I was hoping the new HELO work was going to take care of this, but it seems that there is going to be more restrictive rules on HELO, not less.

I think that the problem is a 'feature' of the MSQ code that validates that the sender's domain actually exists (i.e. doesn't return NXDOMAIN), and returns FAIL if not. I suspect that this logic probably should not be present for the HELO fallback case -- maybe it should return SOFTFAIL instead.

Philip

--
Philip Gladstone
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