exim 4 - Domain missing or malformed

[thedavid]

Hello all,

Since the upgrade to exim 4 we've been getting *lots* of bouncebacks. These bouncebacks are specifically if someone has sent out an email with a script, and that script has used the email address format of 'username@servername.domainname.com.'

Here's an example of what we're seeing - I've replaced only the userid:

Message 19Zii8-0001Tw-GW is no longer frozen
transport error EPIPE ignored
LOG: MAIN
: local_sa_delivery transport output: An error was detected while processing a file of BSMTP input.
LOG: MAIN
** userid@nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com. R=sa_localuser T=local_sa_delivery: Child process of local_sa_delivery transport returned 2 from command: /usr/sbin/sendmail
LOG: MAIN
Error while reading message with no usable sender address (R=19Zii8-0001Tw-GW): at least one malformed recipient address: username@nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com. - domain missing or malformed
LOG: MAIN
Process failed (1) when writing error message to username@nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com. (frozen)

The issue appears to be that exim is trying to deliver these messages to itself improperly. Here's what exim is doing, from what I can tell:
root@nosferatu [~]# telnet 127.0.0.1 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
220-nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com. ESMTP Exim 4.20 #1 Fri, 11 Jul 2003 11:46:30 -0400
220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport unsolicited,
220 and/or bulk e-mail.
HELO ion-web.com
250 nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com. Hello ion-web.com [127.0.0.1]
MAIL FROM: test@ion-web.com
250 OK
RCPT TO: ion-web@nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com.
501 ion-web@nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com.: domain missing or malformed

However, if the trailing period is removed, it allows the message:

root@nosferatu [~]# telnet 127.0.0.1 25
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
220-nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com. ESMTP Exim 4.20 #1 Fri, 11 Jul 2003 11:47:31 -0400
220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport unsolicited,
220 and/or bulk e-mail.
HELO ion-web.com
250 nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com. Hello ion-web.com [127.0.0.1]
MAIL FROM: test@ion-web.com
250 OK
RCPT TO: ion-web@nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com
250 Accepted

So here we have a problem with exim mailing itself messages that it won't even accept from itself. Because of this, it's littering the mail spool with these messages from scripts.

I've written cpanel support, and they suggested to run /scripts/sysup and /scripts/exim4, and that brought no change at all. Anyone out there know why this would start occuring, and what can be changed to allow exim to accept these trailing periods that it's now forcing on every message? This same thing does not occur if you use a regular smtp session from outlook or whatnot.

-David

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[ciphervendor]

Perhaps give this a try:

/scripts/updatenow
/scripts/exim4

Build 170 (I think) of Exim should be installed.

[thedavid]

Originally posted by ciphervendor
Perhaps give this a try:

/scripts/updatenow
/scripts/exim4

Build 170 (I think) of Exim should be installed.

Yeah, I already tried that. No good/Same error.

-David

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[thedavid]

Ok, this is bad now...

Now all email addresses are being 'converted' somehow and are getting bounced back. I just received this as a bounce for something I've replied to within outlook.

Here's a nice bounce message from one address on the same server to another - I've changed only the customers address:

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

userid@nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com.
(generated from userid@domain.com)
local delivery failed

The following text was generated during the delivery attempt:

------ userid@nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com.
(generated from userid@domain.com) ------

An error was detected while processing a file of BSMTP input. The error message was:

501 domain missing or malformed

The SMTP transaction started in line 0.
The error was detected in line 2.
The SMTP command at fault was:

RCPT TO:<userid@nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com.>

0 previous messages were successfully processed.
The rest of the batch was abandoned.
501 domain missing or malformed
Transaction started in line 0
Error detected in line 2
RCPT TO:<userid@nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com.>

------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------

Return-path: <support@ion-web.com>
Received: from [24.231.165.127] (helo=missthang)
by nosferatu.thewebhostingserver.com. with esmtp (Exim 4.20)
id 19b0oe-00011c-GP
for userid@domain.com; Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:32:12 -0400
From: "Support" <support@ion-web.com>
To: <userid@domain.com>
Subject: RE: Email delivery problem
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:32:06 -0400
Message-ID: <000c01c347c9$f79595c0$6501a8c0@missthang>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_000D_01C347A8.7083F5C0"
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.2616
Importance: Normal
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165
In-Reply-To: <001201c347c1$46bf2ca0$0100a8c0@senok>

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_000D_01C347A8.7083F5C0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[thedavid]

So...

I went back to stable and downgraded to exim3. Now email sort of works, which is better than bouncing everything like exim4 with the current cpanel config was doing.

Nothing changed here, and we didn't load anything 'custom' into our configs that should have made exim perform the way it did. This wasn't just 1 server either. The current exim4 config is far from 'release' ready if it breaks pretty much everything, and should have been kept on edge for a while longer.

Just my opinion.

-David

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[tAzMaNiAc]

Originally posted by thedavid
So...

I went back to stable and downgraded to exim3. Now email sort of works, which is better than bouncing everything like exim4 with the current cpanel config was doing.

Nothing changed here, and we didn't load anything 'custom' into our configs that should have made exim perform the way it did. This wasn't just 1 server either. The current exim4 config is far from 'release' ready if it breaks pretty much everything, and should have been kept on edge for a while longer.

Just my opinion.

-David

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

It is pretty much stable for my platform though...You seem not to have submitted a ticket....(?)

Hmm..

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[thedavid]

Originally posted by tAzMaNiAc
It is pretty much stable for my platform though...You seem not to have submitted a ticket....(?)

Hmm..

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

Nope, I did. First post:

"I've written cpanel support, and they suggested to run /scripts/sysup and /scripts/exim4, and that brought no change at all."



-David

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number:

[cpanelnick]

It looks like you have an extra "." on the end of your hostname. You should probably change that in whm as this would cause the problem.

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number: