Allow single account PHP direct email relaying

Hello, I'm writing this post as a last resource as I truely cannot figure out my next move.

My goal is to use the PHP swiftmailer class to send email through AWS SES on a single account on my WHM server, it has been working fine before on port 2587 with TLS encryption but a recently cpanel update seems to have blocked this (as it rightly should from a security perspective).

I have tried disabling both options in WHM:

Server Settings -> Tweak Settings ->
Prevent “nobody” from sending mail [?] = off
Restrict outgoing SMTP to root, exim, and mailman (FKA SMTP Tweak) [?] = off​

The script works if executed as root, but does not work if executed by the account:

Code:

[root:fire] /home/dawn777/public_html/old/automation/include # php -f swtest.php 
Message send results: 1

dawn777@dawnet.net [~/public_html/old/automation/include]# php -f swtest.php 

Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Swift_TransportException' with message 'Connection could not be established with host email-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com [Connection refused #111]' in /home/dawn777/public_html/old/automation/include/swift/lib/classes/Swift/Transport/StreamBuffer.php:266
Stack trace:
#0 /home/dawn777/public_html/old/automation/include/swift/lib/classes/Swift/Transport/StreamBuffer.php(64): Swift_Transport_StreamBuffer->_establishSocketConnection()
#1 /home/dawn777/public_html/old/automation/include/swift/lib/classes/Swift/Transport/AbstractSmtpTransport.php(115): Swift_Transport_StreamBuffer->initialize(Array)
#2 /home/dawn777/public_html/old/automation/include/swift/lib/classes/Swift/Mailer.php(80): Swift_Transport_AbstractSmtpTransport->start()
#3 /home/dawn777/public_html/old/automation/include/swtest.php(34): Swift_Mailer->send(Object(Swift_Message))
#4 {main}
  thrown in /home/dawn777/public_html/old/automation/include/swift/lib/classes/Swift/Transport/StreamBuffer.php on line 266

Here is the script:

Code:

<?
$SMTPhost   = "email-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com";
$SMTPuser   = "foo";
$SMTPpass   = "bar";
$SMTPport   = '2587';
$SMTPenc    = 'tls';


  // echo stream_get_transports();

  require_once 'swift/lib/swift_required.php';

  // Create the Transport
  $transport = Swift_SmtpTransport::newInstance($SMTPhost, $SMTPport, $SMTPenc)
    ->setUsername($SMTPuser)
    ->setPassword($SMTPpass)
    ;

 // Create the Mailer using your created Transport
  $mailer = Swift_Mailer::newInstance($transport);

  // Create a message
  $message = Swift_Message::newInstance('Wonderful Subject')
    ->setFrom('support@foo.net')
    ->setTo(array('test@bar.com'))
    ->setBody('Here is the message itself')
    ;

  // Send the message
  $result = $mailer->send($message);
  echo "Message send results: $result";


?>

 

PHP Version 5.3.27
You can see full details here:
- Removed -

I have not reached out to the script provider as I have tried this same script on several different non-cpanel systems and it works fine. I will also not that in the past, it would not work on the cPanel system on standard SMTP ports with TLS or SSL encryption. The only way that I was able to get it working was to use the one nonstandard port that Amazon allows which is 2587. That solution was fine until cPanel patched it.

 

Okay you can disregard. I was unable to resolve the issue but I did find a workaround which is probably the appropriate way to do it in the first place.

For reference for anyone with a similar issue, I added the following to the Exim config (through WHM I might add) to make the system MTA (exim) be in charge of the connection SES and I am using the swift class to pass the email along to the MTA.

Code:

!ROUTERS
send_via_ses:
driver = manualroute
domains = ! +local_domains
senders = foo@bar.com
transport = ses_smtp
route_list = * email-smtp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com;

!TRANSPORT BEGIN
ses_smtp:
driver = smtp
port = 587
hosts_require_auth = $host_address
hosts_require_tls = $host_address


!AUTHENTICATION
ses_login:
driver = plaintext
public_name = LOGIN
client_send = : USERNAME : PASSWORD