Host Access Control sshd All deny blocking both sshd and imap in WHM 108.x

Mark Fischer

Member
Jan 18, 2017
7
0
126
Georgetown, TX
cPanel Access Level
Root Administrator
After updating to WHM 108 I was no longer able to access imap email from IP addresses not specifically set to be ignored in the firewall. After much investigation I discovered that Host Access Control has changed in how it handles sshd connections. On WHM 106 a "sshd ALL deny" command only blocked connections to sshd. On WHM 108 the same command also blocks imap connections. To resolve the issue I added a "imap ALL allow" command before the "sshd ALL deny" command. Now I can check email from ip addresses not specifically listed in Host Access Control or in the ConfigServer Firewall.
 

cPRex

Jurassic Moderator
Staff member
Oct 19, 2014
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Thanks for that clarification. I wasn't able to reproduce this behavior on a test machine. I setup a CentOS 7 server using cPanel 108, configured SSH to be blocked completely, and I was still able to send a message using IMAP to both ports 143 and 993.

Do you possibly have another rule that could be interfering with the IMAP delivery?
 

Mark Fischer

Member
Jan 18, 2017
7
0
126
Georgetown, TX
cPanel Access Level
Root Administrator
I will take a closer look at our current rules but when I remove the rule "sshd ALL deny" from Host Access Control I can check email from ip addresses not specifically listed in Host Access Control or in the ConfigServer Firewall. When it is added back email is blocked until the rule "smtp ALL allow" is added before the "sshd ALL deny" rule.