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

[psfrog]

I noticed that if a user had a email-address created with the name "shadow" - like "[email protected]" 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 "[email protected] --> [email protected]"

And if You have "catch-all" set to forward emails to for an example "[email protected]" all emails sent to for an example "[email protected]" 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:

== [email protected] 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 "[email protected]".

 

[cPanelDavidG]

I'm unable to replicate this on build 17072

Creating an email account [email protected] gives me:

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

Creating a forwarder [email protected] -> [email protected] 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.

 

[psfrog]

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 "[email protected] 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.

 

[cPanelDavidG]

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 "[email protected] 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.

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).

 

[psfrog]

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?

 

[cPanelDavidG]

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?

If you consider this an urgent issue, I'd recommend submitting a ticket. Otherwise, submit a bug report.

 

[Jinxey]

Sorry to bump, but I appear to be having this issue aswell. Is there any solution for it yet?

 

[Edward Ke]

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.

 

[shadow_shooter]

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

 

[mtindor]

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

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

Mike

 

[cPanelDavidG]

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

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.

 

[Jinxey]

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.

Is their anyway of fixing it? Or can we just not use the username anymore?

 

[cPanelDavidG]

Is their anyway of fixing it? Or can we just not use the username anymore?

I would advise against any attempts to force the ability to use shadow as a username in a Unix environment.