Exim? or Sendmail?

[trakwebster]

In the WHM documentation I've seen so far, it says that Exim is a plug-in replacement for Sendmail. And I know that Exim is running on my server (because I broke the exim.conf file yesterday and had to fix it).

But during the nightly process where WHM checks for package updates and backs up users, I noticed that last night it downloaded --

sendmail-cf-blahblah.rpm
and
sendmail-devel-blahblah.rpm

I we're not using it, why are we updating it?

Or is sendmail used in some way of which I am ignorant?

Anyone know?

[Annette]

Maybe Nick did that to satisfy the people who insist sendmail is installed on their systems when it isn't?

[dgbaker]

On all of our servers /usr/share/sendmail-cf directory exists and it's content have been there from day one.

It actually is all of the config files for sendmail. Though they are being used.

[Annette]

The files are hanging out, probably due to your load of linux, as they would be on just about any generic load. I have yet to see a cPanel box where sendmail is actually built and running unless the admin wanted to use it for some reason and did it themselves. This whole sendmail issue has been pretty amusing in some regards around here. Less so at other places where sendmail is really the MTA in use, is really built, is really running, and does really need to be patched. We've done a number of patches on contract, and it takes about three seconds to repair. Let's hope that everyone with a (really) affected system pays attention to this particular issue and buttons up their systems, or things could get (really) interesting.

[dgbaker]

Originally posted by Annette
We've done a number of patches on contract, and it takes about three seconds to repair.

Charging a good hourly rate I hope.

And you are right, it's not in use and is just leftovers of the default linux install. But that is probably what's got some in a panic. They see that and think it is running.

[Annette]

We work cheap on some things.

And I understand about seeing sendmail-related crap hanging around on systems - most people accept the fact that they're not actually running sendmail but exim, and that sendmail will appear in the process list because it's linked. In fact, a couple of our dedicated clients did ask about this issue, we explained it, they're happy, and they're not worried about it because it doesn't affect them. I guess I don't get why some people refuse to accept it (and get rude) when it's repeated ad nauseum and pointed out that they're not seeing what they think they are. It strikes me as rather silly to continue to complain about a problem that doesn't exist.

[trakwebster]

Actually, in my newness, I was mostly just puzzled by why sendmail stuff was being updated if it wasn't running.

I'd read about the sendmail exploit recently, but had noticed that the 'sendmail' being called was just a symlink to exim. Even being a newbie, that indicated that sendmail wasn't running.

And I am grateful to Annette and dgbaker for your help in clarifying this mystery.

[Annette]

Patches? We don' need no steekin' patches!