Check for a '.forward' file in '/root'?

That could account for the status report going somewhere other than where it's supposed to, but might not explain the other issues you're seeing.

Angus



Chas Hockenbarger wrote on 8/16/20 6:09 PM:
I just got another piece of information.  I got a failure message a few hours ago to the postmaster account for this domain that a message from root to root was not delivered to 5 different Gmail accounts.  The email was the cron.daily status report.  There is no way that should be going to these Gmail accounts.  They are accounts I don’t know and root at this server is supposed to go to postmaster.

This just keeps getting weirder.

*From:* Eric Broch [mailto:ebr...@whitehorsetc.com]
*Sent:* Sunday, August 16, 2020 4:13 PM
*To:* qmailtoaster-list@qmailtoaster.com
*Subject:* Re: [qmailtoaster] Distressing strange behavior

Yes forwards can be in a .qmail file or in the vpopmail database.

So, the bounces occurring presently, what's the originating account?

Is there anything in your queue (# qmailctl queue)?

On 8/16/2020 2:46 PM, Charles Hockenbarger wrote:

    As I understand the forwards setup in qmailadmin those are in the
    database, right?

    The address that was compromised hasn't sent any email since the
    password change.

    I hadn't thought about looking at qmail-inject. I'll dig into
    watching that part of the process.

    Get TypeApp for Android <http://www.typeapp.com/r?b=15986>

    On Aug 16, 2020, at 3:14 PM, Eric Broch <ebr...@whitehorsetc.com
    <mailto:ebr...@whitehorsetc.com>> wrote:

        How do you have your forwards set up?

        Is there any mail in your queue?

        If someone hacked an account on your server with forwards to
        gmail accounts they aren't limited to just these forwards, they
        also have the option in the email client to add gmail accounts
        in the "To:" field of the email they're sending, thus bounces
        from gmail accounts that aren't in your forwards file.

        Also, qmail-inject puts mail in the queue and you'll see it in
        the send log.

        On 8/16/2020 10:05 AM, Chas Hockenbarger wrote:

            I'm hoping someone has encountered this weird behavior or
            something like it before and can point me down a path,
            because all my research has turned up nothing so far.

            I had an email account recently get breached due to a
            re-used password, and that account was used to send a bunch
            of spam out from a server I help manage.  We changed the
            password on the account as soon as we found it happening and
            the outbound flood stopped.

            Shortly after that, however, I started seeing a very, very
            strange behavior.  Sometimes, and I haven’t yet been able to
            identify the trigger or pattern, when users on this server
            send email to a forward that contains around 50 or so email
            addresses (they use it like a private distribution list)
            they will get anywhere from 1-10 bounces from Gmail.  Not
            every email sent to the forward has this happen, and not
            even every email from a particular user.

            The outbound spamming caused the server’s reputation to go
            in the tank with Google, and if it weren’t for that, I
            wouldn’t know this was happening, because they get the
            bounces from Gmail accounts that absolutely ARE NOT in the
            forward or part of the email chain AT ALL.

            I’m kind of freaking out here because while I haven’t found
            a breach of the actual server / OS, this feels like someone
            has been able to inject something somewhere into my server
            that I simply can’t find.  It is especially troubling
            because a user who is not on this domain, but is part of the
            group and therefore uses the forward from time to time, sent
            something to the forward today and got Gmail bounces.

            I don’t see anything in the send log that shows the server
            even trying to send to Gmail, which only adds to the ghost
            story.

            Any ideas, paths to go down, anything would be greatly
            appreciated here.  I’m about to just rebuild the whole thing
            from scratch on a new VM, but if I’m overlooking something
            simple don’t want to put the users through that.

            Thanks in advance.

            Chas


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