Re: Zmailer & open relays

[Andy Poling <andy@globalauctions.com>]

On Mon, 6 Dec 1999, Matti Aarnio wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 06, 1999 at 10:14:21AM -0200, Ralf Baechle wrote:
> > This week I had to find that zmailer will run fine even without an
> > smtpserver.conf config file.  Ouch, in this case it will be open
> > relay ...
> 
>   Indeed it is the original default operational mode.

Yes, and backward compatibility and robustness in the face of difficulty are
both good things.


>   Should it be changed so that it reports both:
> 	- Configuration missing
> 	- Policy dataset missing
>   and refuses to do anything with '400'-series message ?

Not unless it's a compile-time option.  You could log it as a super-terrible
error, and a paranoid system administrator should notice that error in the
log.

I don't think it's a good idea to purposely break zmailer completely just
because a relatively unimportant configuration file is not present (for
whatever reason).  I don't use either of them (I have my own policy code),
and they're not present on my systems.

Spam is a bad thing, certainly, but the fundamental function of an MTA is to
deliver the mail.  Let's not get so carried away over spam so that we lose
sight of our mission...

-Andy