Package: exim4-config
Version: 4.90~RC1-1
Severity: normal
Dear Maintainer,
*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***
* What led up to the situation?
This recently came up in Exim logs:
2017-11-03 16:22:39 H=(ws2008) [10.20.30.40] F=
rejected RCPT : Sender verify failed
2017-11-03 16:22:39 H=(ws2008) [10.20.30.40] F=
rejected RCPT : Sender verify failed
2017-11-03 16:22:40 H=(ws2008) [10.20.30.40] F=
rejected RCPT : Sender verify failed
2017-11-03 16:22:42 H=(ws2008) [10.20.30.40]
F= rejected RCPT : relay
not permitted
It reveals that an attacker took advantage that sender verification happens
before relay checks to perform a brute force scan that revealed valid addresses
in our domain.
* What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
ineffective)?
We moved sender verification so that it happens after relay check.
* What was the outcome of this action?
After this change, it's no longer possible for an attacker to use this
technique to extract information. All their attempts would result in "relay not
permitted" regardless of sender address.
I'm attaching a patch. Note our server runs 4.86 on Ubuntu but the patch is for
exim 4.90~RC1-1.
*** End of the template - remove these template lines ***
-- Package-specific info:
Exim version 4.86_2 #2 built 03-Jun-2017 05:07:28
Copyright (c) University of Cambridge, 1995 - 2015
(c) The Exim Maintainers and contributors in ACKNOWLEDGMENTS file, 2007 - 2015
Berkeley DB: Berkeley DB 5.3.28: (September 9, 2013)
Support for: crypteq iconv() IPv6 GnuTLS move_frozen_messages DKIM DNSSEC PRDR
OCSP
Lookups (built-in): lsearch wildlsearch nwildlsearch iplsearch cdb dbm dbmjz
dbmnz dnsdb dsearch nis nis0 passwd
Authenticators: cram_md5 plaintext
Routers: accept dnslookup ipliteral manualroute queryprogram redirect
Transports: appendfile/maildir/mailstore autoreply lmtp pipe smtp
Fixed never_users: 0
Size of off_t: 8
Configuration file is /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated
-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
APT prefers xenial-updates
APT policy: (500, 'xenial-updates'), (500, 'xenial-security'), (500,
'xenial'), (100, 'xenial-backports')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386
Kernel: Linux 4.10.0-37-generic (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
Versions of packages exim4-config depends on:
ii adduser3.113+nmu3ubuntu4
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.58ubuntu1
exim4-config recommends no packages.
exim4-config suggests no packages.
-- Configuration Files:
/etc/email-addresses changed [not included]
/etc/exim4/conf.d/acl/30_exim4-config_check_rcpt changed [not included]
/etc/exim4/conf.d/acl/40_exim4-config_check_data changed [not included]
/etc/exim4/conf.d/auth/30_exim4-config_examples changed [not included]
/etc/exim4/conf.d/main/03_exim4-config_tlsoptions changed [not included]
/etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template changed [not included]
-- debconf information excluded
--- 30_exim4-config_check_rcpt_orig 2017-11-05 15:13:31.253064618 +0100
+++ 30_exim4-config_check_rcpt_sender 2017-11-05 15:15:15.076702584 +0100
@@ -107,24 +107,6 @@
domains = +local_domains : +relay_to_domains
- # Deny unless the sender address can be verified.
- #
- # This is disabled by default so that DNSless systems don't break. If
- # your system can do DNS lookups without delay or cost, you might want
- # to enable this feature.
- #
- # This feature does not work in smarthost and satellite setups as
- # with these setups all domains pass verification. See spec.txt section
- # "Access control lists" subsection "Address verification" with the added
- # information that a smarthost/satellite setup routes all non-local e-mail
- # to the smarthost.
- .ifdef CHECK_RCPT_VERIFY_SENDER
- deny
-message = Sender verification failed
-!acl = acl_local_deny_exceptions
-!verify = sender
- .endif
-
# Verify senders listed in local_sender_callout with a callout.
#
# In smarthost and satellite setups, this causes the callout to be
@@ -183,6 +165,34 @@
message = relay not permitted
domains = +local_domains : +relay_to_domains
+ # If sender check is enabled, it should be after relay check. Otherwise, it
+ # would be possible to tell if a local address exists by attempting to send
+ # a mail with:
+ # - the targetted local address as sender
+ # - an arbitrary remote address as recipient
+ # Thus if the mail were rejected with "relay not permitted", this means it
+ # passed sender verification.
+ #
+ # This could be exploited in a brute-force scan to find valid addresses (usually
+ # for spam purposes).
+
+ # Deny unless the sender address can be verified.
+ #
+ # This is disabled by default so that DNSless systems don't break. If
+ # your system can do DNS lookups without delay or cost, you mi
