[Resolved] Unix sendmail whitelist configuration?

[Schneibster]

Hi, I use spamcop's DNSBL in my sendmail configuration. It works pretty well, but every so often it starts blocking Yahoo, and I am a member of several groups. As has been documented in the FAQ and in posts on this forum ad nauseum, Yahoo then cancels email sending to my address because their email was returned. This is a hassle, and seems to come in waves- I'll go perhaps six or eight months without this happening, and all of a sudden it happens every couple of days for a month or two.

I understand that I might get more spam if I do this, but I'd like to add the Yahoo returns address listed in the FAQ entry about Yahoo groups being blocked to a whitelist entry in my sendmail configuration. It might even be nice to have something that matched the BL and not the whitelist rejected, and something that matched both flagged, but I expect that's a bit sophisticated for the level of expertise I've seen so far.

I searched on the obvious on this forum, and didn't find any information other than "use spamcop's email and add the returns address to your spamcop whitelist." I'm not interested in having my email kept on any third party's server, no matter how trustworthy they may be- it's my email, and I want it on my server. I'm not interested in having my email go through someone else's server so they can massage it, either- I just want to add the sendmail config to whitelist the Yahoo returns IP address/hostname to my sendmail.mc and sendmail.cf.

Does anyone have instructions for setting up a whitelist on Unix sendmail, in sendmail.mc before it's compiled to sendmail.cf, or in sendmail.cf? If not, I'll break out the big book with a bat on the front, you can do darn near anything with sendmail, but I'm hoping to shortcut the inevitable fooling around for days that this will require. Even if I get instructions, I expect I'll have it out to get the option I talked about above, of flagging it instead of rejecting it if it matches both the DNSBL and the whitelist, but I can put that off, and I can't put off the Yahoo bounces- I'm working on some things that I need to get my Yahoo group mail for and if it continues, I'm going to have to go as far as turning off the BL temporarily until I can figure this out, and wading through the mountain of spam I'll get as a result .

Thanks in advance.

-Da Schneib

[turetzsr]

...Having been here for many months, I would trust advice I received here but I don't know why you would. <g>

...Have you posted this inquiry to a unix sendmail forum?

[GraemeL]

You don't make the change in sendmail.mc, you make it in the file "access". It's probably in /etc/mail, or wherever your .mc file lives.

Add the following substituting the address you want whitelisted:

From:whitelist[at]address.invalid OK

Then save the file, run make and restart sendmail.

This will bypass the local_checks section of the filtering for all mail from that address.

[Wazoo]

A quick Google result;

http://www.sng.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailscanner.../cache/325.html

http://www.unixwiz.net/about/sendmail.html

http://marvin.sihope.com/public/howit_works.htm

[Schneibster]

Friend, it works or it doesn't. Simple as that. "Trust" is not operative. I'll check any advice I receive to see exactly what it will do to sendmail; I can do that much easier than I can go hunt up the needed configuration in the bat book.

I'm guessing I just need to add "returns.groups.yahoo.com" to my access file, but I'm looking to see if anyone knows that will work or knows it will not, and whether there are any perhaps trickier ways of doing it that might add a little more functionality. If someone here knows, fine, great, I'm happy and the knowledge base of the forum is improved. If not, fine, great, I'll crack open the bat book.

[Schneibster]

A quick Google result;

Thanks Wazoo and GraemeL. I'm trying adding returns.groups.yahoo.com to my sendmail access db. It's running now; I'll post the results here, both to indicate whether I get spam as a result and if so how much, and to indicate whether it allows the group emails through. Yahoo's kinda hinky for terminating your service for a single bounce; I'm beginning to think I might be wasting my time dealing with them, but that's another story.

[GraemeL]

I'm trying adding returns.groups.yahoo.com to my sendmail access db. It's running now

Oops, if it's a server you want whitelisted, not an email address, you want to add this:

connect:returns.groups.yahoo.com OK

This will remove all blocklist checks for mail from that server. Not sure if it does forward/reverse lookup checks or if it's suseptible to spoofing.

[Schneibster]

Oops, if it's a server you want whitelisted, not an email address, you want to add this:

connect:returns.groups.yahoo.com OK

Sorry, I should have said I was using connect and saved you the anxiety. Thanks for your concern.

[turetzsr]

Friend, it works or it doesn't. Simple as that. "Trust" is not operative. I'll check any advice I receive to see exactly what it will do to sendmail; I can do that much easier than I can go hunt up the needed configuration in the bat book.

<snip>

27279[/snapback]

...Perhaps my choice of the word "trust" was poor. My intent was to suggest that an inquiry about unix sendmail would be better placed in a forum whose subject was (and which was more likely to be frequented by more people who have knowledge of) that technology. That said, I'm not at all surprised that you received what appears to be helpful advice from other SpamCop users. <big g>

[Schneibster]

So far, so good- Yahoo is not blocked, and I only got one spam. We'll see if it continues like that.

[Schneibster]

Yep, five days and no problems. No spam (at least not in excess of what I usually see- 1 every day or two) and no problems with Yahoo group mail. I have to guess that that's it. Thanks again for the assistance, folks.

[Wazoo]

Thanks for the follow-up.