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use of "shadow" in email-address wont work anymore

Discussion in 'E-mail Discussion' started by psfrog, Sep 18, 2007.

  1. psfrog

    psfrog Member

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    I noticed that if a user had a email-address created with the name "shadow" - like "shadow@mydomain.com" the email-address will not be listed in the users cpanel after an upgrade to Cpanel11.

    Further more no emails can be delivered to a email-address with the name "shadow" in it.
    No forwarders works either - like example "shadow@mydomain.com --> me@gmail.com"

    And if You have "catch-all" set to forward emails to for an example "me@gmail.com" all emails sent to for an example "shadow@mydomain.com" will not be forwarded.

    What happens with the mails then? Will they bounce back to the sender? Well NO - they will be stranded in the mailqueue first - often for several days. If You try manually to deliver them an error-message like this will occur:
    Code:
    == shadow@mydomain.com R=virtual_user_filter defer (-1): require_files:
> error for /home/mydomain/etc/mydomain.com/shadow/filter: Not a directory
    A perfect opurtunity for spambots or "mean" people to fill up Cpanel servers with thousands of emails addressed to "shadow@whateverdomainname.com". :(
     
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    #1 psfrog, Sep 18, 2007
  2. cPanelDavidG

    cPanelDavidG Technical Product Specialist

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    I'm unable to replicate this on build 17072

    Creating an email account shadow@ gives me:

    Sorry, 'shadow' is a reserved username. Please choose another name.

    Creating a forwarder shadow@ -> someaddy@someDomain.ext works for me though.

    May be a server-specific issue. In that case you may want to submit a support request as it may not be a bug.
     
    #2 cPanelDavidG, Sep 18, 2007
  3. psfrog

    psfrog Member

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    I get the same message when I try creating a email-address with a "shadow" name - and I can create a forwarder - but it wont work as it suppose to do - no emails will be forwarded..
    Please try send a mail to "shadow@someDomain.ext and You will see it will be "caught" in the mailqueue. You can see the error-messade I described in the "/var/log/exim_mainlog" or if You try deliver the mail in WHM panel.
     
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    #3 psfrog, Sep 18, 2007
  4. cPanelDavidG

    cPanelDavidG Technical Product Specialist

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    Interesting, if it forwards to a cPanel server then it does generate the error you mentioned.

    When I tested it for an off-server forward, I just got a user doesn't exist from the remote server (the user didn't exist, so I just took that to be a successful forward).
     
    #4 cPanelDavidG, Sep 18, 2007
  5. psfrog

    psfrog Member

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    I have tested this at several servers with "stable" and "release" versions of Cpanel 11 and it's the same issues at them all.
    I hope Cpanel developers should consider to take a looka at this asap. Maybe I should create a ticket or report a bug?
     
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    #5 psfrog, Sep 19, 2007
  6. cPanelDavidG

    cPanelDavidG Technical Product Specialist

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    If you consider this an urgent issue, I'd recommend submitting a ticket. Otherwise, submit a bug report.
     
    #6 cPanelDavidG, Sep 19, 2007
  7. Jinxey

    Jinxey Member

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    Sorry to bump, but I appear to be having this issue aswell. Is there any solution for it yet?
     
    #7 Jinxey, Oct 10, 2007
  8. Edward Ke

    Edward Ke Registered

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    The problem exists because if you look in /home/mydomain/etc/mydomain.com/ you will see one of the files is named 'shadow' so cPanel isn't able to create a directory named 'shadow' for filters. I'm sure the same problem would exist if you tried creating a user named 'passwd'.

    No idea on a fix however. :(
     
    #8 Edward Ke, Oct 22, 2007
  9. shadow_shooter

    shadow_shooter Registered

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    I'm having the same problem that I can't create an e-mail address named "shadow". Why is it a reserved word? It's interesting to discover that you don't get what you paid. My all firends are used to "shadow" as my nickname so I don't want to create any other e-mails.

    Plaese HELP
     
    #9 shadow_shooter, Apr 21, 2008
  10. mtindor

    mtindor Well-Known Member

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    In life, you usually don't get what you paid for :)

    Mike
     
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    #10 mtindor, Apr 21, 2008
  11. cPanelDavidG

    cPanelDavidG Technical Product Specialist

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    To avoid an excessively technical discussion, shadow is a special term in Unix environments with relation to passwords and usernames. This is why there is an existing shadow directory (as noted in the post above yours) and why you cannot create shadow as a username. You can use alternate representations of that username such as shad0w. However, shadow itself cannot be used as it is a reserved word. I recommend an internet search for /etc/shadow for a more comprehensive discussion of shadow.
     
    #11 cPanelDavidG, Apr 24, 2008
  12. Jinxey

    Jinxey Member

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    Is their anyway of fixing it? Or can we just not use the username anymore?
     
    #12 Jinxey, Apr 27, 2008
  13. cPanelDavidG

    cPanelDavidG Technical Product Specialist

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    I would advise against any attempts to force the ability to use shadow as a username in a Unix environment.
     
    #13 cPanelDavidG, Apr 28, 2008
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