Re: Case sensitive usernames and sendmail - mystic voodoo

2013-05-26 Thread Polytropon
On Sun, 26 May 2013 21:31:09 -0600, Modulok wrote:
> >> Everything to the right of the @ is indeed case insensitive, but
> >> everything
> >> to the left might be case sensitive, depending on local policy.  This
> >> means
> >> you must preserve the case of everything to the left of the @ sign.
> >
> > According to the link provided by Erich Dollansky, FreeBSD's
> > default sendmail.cf setting of
> >
> > Mlocal,   P=/usr/libexec/mail.local, F=lsDFMAw5
> >
> > needs to be added the "u" option to the F= parameter to preserve
> > the uppercase letters in the the left side (username) of the
> > address. Maybe this additiion is required in other cf files
> > containing Mlocal settings too? Of course it would be nice if
> > there was a corresponding setting for the mc files which the
> > cf files are usually generated from...
> 
> So, best practices aside, this would be a bug in the default config?

No. A convention. :-)



> (i.e. can I celebrate my bug-finding yet?)

Depends. If it's a _desired_ convention (because people regularly
have problems with e-mail addresses and just don't care for upper
and lower case), it's a good default setting. In _your_ case, it
does not apply, because it introduces problems. So if you intend
to make a local modification, that's no problem because you _can_
configure such things. This is the power that comes by the freedom
of choice. You can celebrate this. :-)




-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: Case sensitive usernames and sendmail - mystic voodoo

2013-05-26 Thread Modulok
>> Everything to the right of the @ is indeed case insensitive, but
>> everything
>> to the left might be case sensitive, depending on local policy.  This
>> means
>> you must preserve the case of everything to the left of the @ sign.
>
> According to the link provided by Erich Dollansky, FreeBSD's
> default sendmail.cf setting of
>
>   Mlocal,   P=/usr/libexec/mail.local, F=lsDFMAw5
>
> needs to be added the "u" option to the F= parameter to preserve
> the uppercase letters in the the left side (username) of the
> address. Maybe this additiion is required in other cf files
> containing Mlocal settings too? Of course it would be nice if
> there was a corresponding setting for the mc files which the
> cf files are usually generated from...

So, best practices aside, this would be a bug in the default config?
(i.e. can I celebrate my bug-finding yet?)

Cheers!
-Modulok-
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Re: Case sensitive usernames and sendmail - mystic voodoo

2013-05-26 Thread Polytropon
On Sun, 26 May 2013 18:36:41 -0700, Michael Sierchio wrote:
> On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 6:17 PM, Polytropon  wrote:
> >
> > On Sun, 26 May 2013 18:44:41 -0600, Modulok wrote:
> > > I know usernames are case-sensitive, I thought emails were
> > > too.
> >
> > If I remember e-mail basics correctly: No. They're not.
> > For example, f...@example.com, f...@example.com and f...@example.com
> > and all upper/lowercase variations are the same as f...@example.com.
> >
> 
> You remember incorrectly ;-)

I checked again - and yes, it seems that my memory about
the valid definition has changed to what is reality today,
i. e. sendmail "rewriting" uppercase to lowercase prior to
further processing.



> The local part of an address (before the @ sign) is case-sensitive (with
> the exception of postmas...@example.com)

So it depends on how sendmail is configured that "it does
not matter today".



> Everything to the right of the @ is indeed case insensitive, but everything
> to the left might be case sensitive, depending on local policy.  This means
> you must preserve the case of everything to the left of the @ sign.

According to the link provided by Erich Dollansky, FreeBSD's
default sendmail.cf setting of

Mlocal,   P=/usr/libexec/mail.local, F=lsDFMAw5

needs to be added the "u" option to the F= parameter to preserve
the uppercase letters in the the left side (username) of the
address. Maybe this additiion is required in other cf files
containing Mlocal settings too? Of course it would be nice if
there was a corresponding setting for the mc files which the
cf files are usually generated from...



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: Case sensitive usernames and sendmail - mystic voodoo

2013-05-26 Thread Michael Sierchio
On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 6:17 PM, Polytropon  wrote:
>
> On Sun, 26 May 2013 18:44:41 -0600, Modulok wrote:
> > I know usernames are case-sensitive, I thought emails were
> > too.
>
> If I remember e-mail basics correctly: No. They're not.
> For example, f...@example.com, f...@example.com and f...@example.com
> and all upper/lowercase variations are the same as f...@example.com.
>

You remember incorrectly ;-)

The local part of an address (before the @ sign) is case-sensitive (with
the exception of postmas...@example.com)

Everything to the right of the @ is indeed case insensitive, but everything
to the left might be case sensitive, depending on local policy.  This means
you must preserve the case of everything to the left of the @ sign.
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Re: Case sensitive usernames and sendmail - mystic voodoo

2013-05-26 Thread Polytropon
On Sun, 26 May 2013 18:44:41 -0600, Modulok wrote:
> I know usernames are case-sensitive, I thought emails were
> too.

If I remember e-mail basics correctly: No. They're not.
For example, f...@example.com, f...@example.com and f...@example.com
and all upper/lowercase variations are the same as f...@example.com.
For sending mail within a system and across systems, names
in the passwd file have to be in conjunction with the
respective mail queues for the users. Even "foo" and "Foo"
can coexist (as soon as they have a different UID, reflecting
the fact that two distinguishable users are intended), but
regarding mail... that sounds problematic.



> Without fighting an epic battle with with the sendmail configs, is
> there a simple way to make this work?

Use lowercase usernames only. Make it a convention.
Verify it.



> The obvious answer is probably, "usernames should be lowercase!" and for
> new users I'll enforce that policy. For existing users however, who may
> already have lots of case-sensitive usernames in various config files,
> etc this isn't a real option.

That's true, but didn't this approach get you in trouble earlier?



> By just altering their usernames I'm
> afraid I'd break the whole damn universe.

This is quite possible. As you mentioned correctly, usernames
with uppercase letters may already appear in config files.
You _could_ check for each user below his $HOME for any
appearing in a file and replace this, but that could cause
trouble if something is stored in a "Registry"-like binary file.
Regarding /etc/passwd, the home directory _may_ be a different
name than the username, so those _pathnames_ in files should
not require a change. But files mentioning _usernames_ will
probably cause problems.



> How can I enable mail for
> them?

Maybe it's possible to use /etc/mail/aliases?



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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Re: Case sensitive usernames and sendmail - mystic voodoo

2013-05-26 Thread Erich Dollansky
Hi,

On Sun, 26 May 2013 18:44:41 -0600
Modulok  wrote:

> List,
> 
> Step1: Make a new user::
> 
> root@localhost# pw useradd foo -m -s /bin/tcsh -h 0
> password for user foo: (secret)
> 
> Step 2: Does sendmail know them::
> 
> root@modunix# sendmail -bv foo@localhost
> foo@localhost... deliverable: mailer local, user foo
> 
> # Good...
> 
> Step 3: Make a new user with uppercase 'B'::
> 
> root@localhost# pw useradd Bar -m -s /bin/tcsh -h 0
> password for user Bar: (secret)
> 
> Step 4: Does sendmail know them::
> 
> root@modunix# sendmail -bv Bar@localhost
> Bar@localhost... User unknown
> 
> 
> Curious, why? I know usernames are case-sensitive, I thought emails
> were too. Without fighting an epic battle with with the sendmail
> configs, is there a simple way to make this work?
> 
> The obvious answer is probably, "usernames should be lowercase!" and
> for new users I'll enforce that policy. For existing users however,
> who may already have lots of case-sensitive usernames in various
> config files, etc this isn't a real option. By just altering their
> usernames I'm afraid I'd break the whole damn universe. How can I
> enable mail for them?
> 
have you read this?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/sendmail-unable-to-find-users-22290/

Erich
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