[comp.mail.sendmail] Trusted user "From" on Sun's

rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) (01/18/91)

In article <BARNETT.91Jan17163141@grymoire.crd.ge.com> barnett@crdgw1.ge.com writes:

>>>Unparseable user <RICHARD.RAGAN@CDCMAIL.svl.cdc.com> wants 
>>>to be <RICHARD.R.RAGAN@CDCMAIL.svl.cdc.com>
>
>Hmm. I have a similar error on our Ultrix machine. This usually
>happens when mail comes in with the address
>
>	user@machine
>
 This problem is all too common.  It is not caused by your machine, but by
the machine which sent you the mail.  A common cause is use of
'sendmail.subsidiary.cf' instead of 'sendmail.main.cf' when sending
from a Sun or similar system.  (Why does the default setup use the
subsidiary version - sigh?)

>What has to be done to make sure all Internet mail connections have
>proper hostnames?

 What really has to be done is for system vendors to take more care in their
default setup.

 As for what you can do, about the only solution I know of is to install the
IDA version of sendmail.  The current version - 5.65a+IDA-1.4.2 - uses the
result of a nameserver lookup to convert user@machine to
user%machine@sending.domain.name, on the assumption that the domain which
directly sent you the mail probably knows the identity of 'machine'.

-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940