Convert Default Addresses to :fail:

[chirpy]

I just posted this to a thread and thought I'd make it available to anyone who wants to run it on their servers. It changes all Default Addresses (i.e. catchall aliases) for all domains on the server to :fail:

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Converting all domain Default Accounts to :fail: ...";
opendir (DIR, "/etc/valiases/") or die;
while (my $file = readdir (DIR)) {
	if ($file =~ /^\./) {next}
	open (IN, "</etc/valiases/$file") or die;
	my @data = <IN>;
	close (IN);
	open (OUT, ">/etc/valiases/$file") or die;
	foreach my $line (@data) {
		if ($line =~ /^\*\:/) {
			print OUT "*: :fail:\n";
		} else {
			print OUT $line;
		}
	}
	close (OUT);
}
print "Done!\n";

Use at your own risk. That means, backup /etc/valiases before running it

[nickn]

Why would you want :fail:? :fail:'s just a bad idea IMO. :blackhole: is the answer.

[chirpy]

Nope, :fail: is definitely the way to go. Here comes my usual answer

It's been accepted now that since the use of verify = recipient in exim.conf that it is definitely best to use :fail: now.

The reasons are:

1. :blackhole: accepts the email and receives it, then sends it to /dev/null. This wastes your bandwidth and actually breaks the SMTP RFC because you're not notifying the sender that the email is undelivered.

2. :fail: stops the email from being received, because verify = recipient occurs at the RCPT phase of the SMTP exchange before any data has been received. No bounce is sent, the exchange simply termintates with an SMTP error code. This means much less processing resources on your SMTP server, much less bandwidth (you don't actually receive the email) and you maintain RFC compliance by notifying the senders SMTP server that the delivery failed (which spammers ignore and real people appreciate if they've made an addressing mistake).

[chirpy]

Btw, just to back that up - I did extensive research on the use of :blackhole: and :fail: when I wrote the exim Dictionary Attack ACL over here:
http://www.webumake.com/free/eximdeny.htm

I also used to think that :blackhole: was best until it was pointed out to me that several months ago the ACL's were changed to use verify = recipient at the RCPT stage. So cynical me went and checked it out and found it to be perfectly true

[dezignguy]

Heh, chirpy, this seems to come up about once a week... I see why you have your usual answer saved and handy. heh.

[PWSowner]

It does get asked a lot doesn't it?

[mr.wonderful]

Btw, just to back that up - I did extensive research on the use of :blackhole: and :fail: when I wrote the exim Dictionary Attack ACL over here:
http://www.webumake.com/free/eximdeny.htm

I also used to think that :blackhole: was best until it was pointed out to me that several months ago the ACL's were changed to use verify = recipient at the RCPT stage. So cynical me went and checked it out and found it to be perfectly true

I looked at your dictionary attack rules, that you recommended, for exim.conf, and found it quite flawed. Your script however is another story. It works well to ban the ip however it needs to be used properly in exim.conf.

I will email you later, off this site and let you know the much better way to use your perl script with exim.conf

[chirpy]

I looked at your dictionary attack rules, that you recommended, for exim.conf, and found it quite flawed. Your script however is another story. It works well to ban the ip however it needs to be used properly in exim.conf.

I will email you later, off this site and let you know the much better way to use your perl script with exim.conf

I wait with baited breath. It works perfectly well for me and all the people I've installed it for and those that have used it themselves. I did do extensive testing with it, using examples provided by the exim developers.

Since you're so highly critical of it, I do hope you will have the decency to post the problems with the implementation here as a matter of urgency, since it is so "flawed".

[picoyak]

FWIW, the dictionary rules are working very well for me. I've noticed that among the bogus recipients there are often some valid ones, so along with reducing load, it's helped ditch a bit of spam.

I will email you later, off this site and let you know the much better way to use your perl script with exim.conf

Why? Chirpy has been generous enough to share his work with everyone here. If you have some addition, then for cryin' out loud, spit it out!

[Valetia]

Btw, just to back that up - I did extensive research on the use of :blackhole: and :fail: when I wrote the exim Dictionary Attack ACL over here:
http://www.webumake.com/free/eximdeny.htm

How do you implement this on a secondary (backup MX) mail server?

The current version of the ACL doesn't work on such servers, since they don't even have the valias files on them. Help!

[chirpy]

You cannot implement it for email being queued on a secondary MX server because the email has not reached its final destination. This can only happen on the primary MX server. It's a limitation you have by imposing an additional hop in the mail delivery route by interrupting the direct SMTP delivery from the source.

[Roy@ENHOST]

I think you have to add extra detection to the script.

From what I know, this script will also switch the pipings that are required by helpdesk softwares to :fail:
You have to use pregmatch regex to check that the destination is not a php,cgi or a binary.
Hope that helps.

[chirpy]

Hi Roy,

I completely agree. It was just thrown togther for those that wanted to splat all their domains, as someone asked for it. So they got it

[XPerties]

You just take this script, place it in a new file on your server and access it to run the script?

[chirpy]

Yes, bascially do this as root on the server:

pico -w defrep.pl
(paste in the script from the thread and exit)

perl defrep.pl

That should be it.