4 This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim.
5 Before a formal release, there may be quite a lot of detail so that people can
6 test from the snapshots or the Git before the documentation is updated. Once
7 the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list.
12 1. Dual-certificate stacks on servers now support OCSP stapling, under GnuTLS
13 version 3.5.6 or later.
15 2. DANE is now supported under GnuTLS version 3.0.0 or later (adding to the
16 previous OpenSSL implementation, but still Experimental).
18 3. Feature macros for the compiled-in set of malware scanner interfaces.
20 4. SPF support is promoted from Experimental to mainline status. The template
21 src/EDITME makefile does not enable its inclusion.
23 5. Logging control for DKIM verification. The existing DKIM log line is
24 controlled by a "dkim_verbose" selector which is _not_ enabled by default.
25 A new tag "DKIM=<domain>" is added to <= lines by default, controlled by
26 a "dkim" log_selector.
28 6. Receive duration on <= lines, under a new log_selector "receive_time".
34 1. PKG_CONFIG_PATH can now be set in Local/Makefile;
35 wildcards will be expanded, values are collapsed.
37 2. The ${readsocket } expansion now takes an option to not shutdown the
38 connection after sending the query string. The default remains to do so.
40 3. An smtp transport option "hosts_noproxy_tls" to control whether multiple
41 deliveries on a single TCP connection can maintain a TLS connection
42 open. By default disabled for all hosts, doing so saves the cost of
43 making new TLS sessions, at the cost of having to proxy the data via
44 another process. Logging is also affected.
46 4. A malware connection type for the FPSCAND protocol.
48 5. An option for recipient verify callouts to hold the connection open for
49 further recipients and for delivery.
51 6. The reproducible build $SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable is now
54 7. Optionally, an alternate format for spool data-files which matches the
55 wire format - meaning more efficient reception and transmission (at the
56 cost of difficulty with standard Unix tools). Only used for messages
57 received using the ESMTP CHUNKING option, and when a new main-section
58 option "spool_wireformat" (false by default) is set.
60 8. New main configuration option "commandline_checks_require_admin" to
61 restrict who can use various introspection options.
63 9. New option modifier "no_check" for quota and quota_filecount
66 10. Variable $smtp_command_history returning a comma-sep list of recent
69 11. Millisecond timetamps in logs, on log_selector "millisec". Also affects
70 log elements QT, DT and D, and timstamps in debug output.
72 12. TCP Fast Open logging. As a server, logs when the SMTP banner was sent
73 while still in SYN_RECV state; as a client logs when the connection
74 is opened with a TFO cookie.
76 13. DKIM support for multiple signing, by domain and/or key-selector.
77 DKIM support for multiple hashes, and for alternate-identity tags.
78 Builtin macro with default list of signed headers.
79 Better syntax for specifying oversigning.
80 The DKIM ACL can override verification status, and status is visible in
83 14. Exipick understands -C|--config for an alternative Exim
86 15. TCP Fast Open used, with data-on-SYN, for client SMTP via SOCKS5 proxy,
87 for ${readsocket } expansions, and for ClamAV.
89 16. The "-be" expansion test mode now supports macros. Macros are expanded
90 in test lines, and new macros can be defined.
92 17. Support for server-side dual-certificate-stacks (eg. RSA + ECDSA).
98 1. Allow relative config file names for ".include"
100 2. A main-section config option "debug_store" to control the checks on
101 variable locations during store-reset. Normally false but can be enabled
102 when a memory corrution issue is suspected on a production system.
108 1. The new perl_taintmode option allows to run the embedded perl
109 interpreter in taint mode.
111 2. New log_selector: dnssec, adds a "DS" tag to acceptance and delivery lines.
113 3. Speculative debugging, via a "kill" option to the "control=debug" ACL
116 4. New expansion item ${sha3:<string>} / ${sha3_<N>:<string>}.
117 N can be 224, 256 (default), 384, 512.
118 With GnuTLS 3.5.0 or later, only.
120 5. Facility for named queues: A command-line argument can specify
121 the queue name for a queue operation, and an ACL modifier can set
122 the queue to be used for a message. A $queue_name variable gives
125 6. New expansion operators base32/base32d.
127 7. The CHUNKING ESMTP extension from RFC 3030. May give some slight
128 performance increase and network load decrease. Main config option
129 chunking_advertise_hosts, and smtp transport option hosts_try_chunking
132 8. LMDB lookup support, as Experimental. Patch supplied by Andrew Colin Kissa.
134 9. Expansion operator escape8bit, like escape but not touching newline etc..
136 10. Feature macros, generated from compile options. All start with "_HAVE_"
137 and go on with some roughly recognisable name. Driver macros, for
138 router, transport and authentication drivers; names starting with "_DRIVER_".
139 Option macros, for each configuration-file option; all start with "_OPT_".
140 Use the "-bP macros" command-line option to see what is present.
142 11. Integer values for options can take a "G" multiplier.
144 12. defer=pass option for the ACL control cutthrough_delivery, to reflect 4xx
145 returns from the target back to the initiator, rather than spooling the
148 13. New built-in constants available for tls_dhparam and default changed.
150 14. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_QUEUEFILE, a queuefile transport, for writing
151 out copies of the message spool files for use by 3rd-party scanners.
153 15. A new option on the smtp transport, hosts_try_fastopen. If the system
154 supports it (on Linux it must be enabled in the kernel by the sysadmin)
155 try to use RFC 7413 "TCP Fast Open". No data is sent on the SYN segment
156 but it permits a peer that also supports the facility to send its SMTP
157 banner immediately after the SYN,ACK segment rather then waiting for
158 another ACK - so saving up to one roundtrip time. Because it requires
159 previous communication with the peer (we save a cookie from it) this
160 will only become active on frequently-contacted destinations.
162 16. A new syslog_pid option to suppress PID duplication in syslog lines.
168 1. The ACL conditions regex and mime_regex now capture substrings
169 into numeric variables $regex1 to 9, like the "match" expansion condition.
171 2. New $callout_address variable records the address used for a spam=,
172 malware= or verify= callout.
174 3. Transports now take a "max_parallel" option, to limit concurrency.
176 4. Expansion operators ${ipv6norm:<string>} and ${ipv6denorm:<string>}.
177 The latter expands to a 8-element colon-sep set of hex digits including
178 leading zeroes. A trailing ipv4-style dotted-decimal set is converted
179 to hex. Pure ipv4 addresses are converted to IPv4-mapped IPv6.
180 The former operator strips leading zeroes and collapses the longest
181 set of 0-groups to a double-colon.
183 5. New "-bP config" support, to dump the effective configuration.
185 6. New $dkim_key_length variable.
187 7. New base64d and base64 expansion items (the existing str2b64 being a
188 synonym of the latter). Add support in base64 for certificates.
190 8. New main configuration option "bounce_return_linesize_limit" to
191 avoid oversize bodies in bounces. The default value matches RFC
194 9. New $initial_cwd expansion variable.
200 1. Support for using the system standard CA bundle.
202 2. New expansion items $config_file, $config_dir, containing the file
203 and directory name of the main configuration file. Also $exim_version.
205 3. New "malware=" support for Avast.
207 4. New "spam=" variant option for Rspamd.
209 5. Assorted options on malware= and spam= scanners.
211 6. A command-line option to write a comment into the logfile.
213 7. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_SOCKS feature enabled, the smtp transport can
214 be configured to make connections via socks5 proxies.
216 8. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_INTERNATIONAL, support is included for
217 the transmission of UTF-8 envelope addresses.
219 9. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_INTERNATIONAL, an expansion item for a commonly
220 used encoding of Maildir folder names.
222 10. A logging option for slow DNS lookups.
224 11. New ${env {<variable>}} expansion.
226 12. A non-SMTP authenticator using information from TLS client certificates.
228 13. Main option "tls_eccurve" for selecting an Elliptic Curve for TLS.
229 Patch originally by Wolfgang Breyha.
231 14. Main option "dns_trust_aa" for trusting your local nameserver at the
232 same level as DNSSEC.
238 1. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_DANE feature enabled, Exim will follow the
239 DANE SMTP draft to assess a secure chain of trust of the certificate
240 used to establish the TLS connection based on a TLSA record in the
241 domain of the sender.
243 2. The EXPERIMENTAL_TPDA feature has been renamed to EXPERIMENTAL_EVENT
244 and several new events have been created. The reason is because it has
245 been expanded beyond just firing events during the transport phase. Any
246 existing TPDA transport options will have to be rewritten to use a new
247 $event_name expansion variable in a condition. Refer to the
248 experimental-spec.txt for details and examples.
250 3. The EXPERIMENTAL_CERTNAMES features is an enhancement to verify that
251 server certs used for TLS match the result of the MX lookup. It does
252 not use the same mechanism as DANE.
262 1. If built with the EXPERIMENTAL_PROXY feature enabled, Exim can be
263 configured to expect an initial header from a proxy that will make the
264 actual external source IP:host be used in exim instead of the IP of the
265 proxy that is connecting to it.
267 2. New verify option header_names_ascii, which will check to make sure
268 there are no non-ASCII characters in header names. Exim itself handles
269 those non-ASCII characters, but downstream apps may not, so Exim can
270 detect and reject if those characters are present.
272 3. New expansion operator ${utf8clean:string} to replace malformed UTF8
273 codepoints with valid ones.
275 4. New malware type "sock". Talks over a Unix or TCP socket, sending one
276 command line and matching a regex against the return data for trigger
277 and a second regex to extract malware_name. The mail spoolfile name can
278 be included in the command line.
280 5. The smtp transport now supports options "tls_verify_hosts" and
281 "tls_try_verify_hosts". If either is set the certificate verification
282 is split from the encryption operation. The default remains that a failed
283 verification cancels the encryption.
285 6. New SERVERS override of default ldap server list. In the ACLs, an ldap
286 lookup can now set a list of servers to use that is different from the
289 7. New command-line option -C for exiqgrep to specify alternate exim.conf
290 file when searching the queue.
292 8. OCSP now supports GnuTLS also, if you have version 3.1.3 or later of that.
294 9. Support for DNSSEC on outbound connections.
296 10. New variables "tls_(in,out)_(our,peer)cert" and expansion item
297 "certextract" to extract fields from them. Hash operators md5 and sha1
298 work over them for generating fingerprints, and a new sha256 operator
301 11. PRDR is now supported dy default.
303 12. OCSP stapling is now supported by default.
305 13. If built with the EXPERIMENTAL_DSN feature enabled, Exim will output
306 Delivery Status Notification messages in MIME format, and negotiate
307 DSN features per RFC 3461.
313 1. New command-line option -bI:sieve will list all supported sieve extensions
314 of this Exim build on standard output, one per line.
315 ManageSieve (RFC 5804) providers managing scripts for use by Exim should
316 query this to establish the correct list to include in the protocol's
317 SIEVE capability line.
319 2. If the -n option is combined with the -bP option, then the name of an
320 emitted option is not output, only the value (if visible to you).
321 For instance, "exim -n -bP pid_file_path" should just emit a pathname
322 followed by a newline, and no other text.
324 3. When built with SUPPORT_TLS and USE_GNUTLS, the SMTP transport driver now
325 has a "tls_dh_min_bits" option, to set the minimum acceptable number of
326 bits in the Diffie-Hellman prime offered by a server (in DH ciphersuites)
327 acceptable for security. (Option accepted but ignored if using OpenSSL).
328 Defaults to 1024, the old value. May be lowered only to 512, or raised as
329 far as you like. Raising this may hinder TLS interoperability with other
330 sites and is not currently recommended. Lowering this will permit you to
331 establish a TLS session which is not as secure as you might like.
333 Unless you really know what you are doing, leave it alone.
335 4. If not built with DISABLE_DNSSEC, Exim now has the main option
336 dns_dnssec_ok; if set to 1 then Exim will initialise the resolver library
337 to send the DO flag to your recursive resolver. If you have a recursive
338 resolver, which can set the Authenticated Data (AD) flag in results, Exim
339 can now detect this. Exim does not perform validation itself, instead
340 relying upon a trusted path to the resolver.
342 Current status: work-in-progress; $sender_host_dnssec variable added.
344 5. DSCP support for outbound connections: on a transport using the smtp driver,
345 set "dscp = ef", for instance, to cause the connections to have the relevant
346 DSCP (IPv4 TOS or IPv6 TCLASS) value in the header.
348 Similarly for inbound connections, there is a new control modifier, dscp,
349 so "warn control = dscp/ef" in the connect ACL, or after authentication.
351 Supported values depend upon system libraries. "exim -bI:dscp" to list the
352 ones Exim knows of. You can also set a raw number 0..0x3F.
354 6. The -G command-line flag is no longer ignored; it is now equivalent to an
355 ACL setting "control = suppress_local_fixups". The -L command-line flag
356 is now accepted and forces use of syslog, with the provided tag as the
357 process name. A few other flags used by Sendmail are now accepted and
360 7. New cutthrough routing feature. Requested by a "control = cutthrough_delivery"
361 ACL modifier; works for single-recipient mails which are received on and
362 deliverable via SMTP. Using the connection made for a recipient verify,
363 if requested before the verify, or a new one made for the purpose while
364 the inbound connection is still active. The bulk of the mail item is copied
365 direct from the inbound socket to the outbound (as well as the spool file).
366 When the source notifies the end of data, the data acceptance by the destination
367 is negotiated before the acceptance is sent to the source. If the destination
368 does not accept the mail item, for example due to content-scanning, the item
369 is not accepted from the source and therefore there is no need to generate
370 a bounce mail. This is of benefit when providing a secondary-MX service.
371 The downside is that delays are under the control of the ultimate destination
374 The Received-by: header on items delivered by cutthrough is generated
375 early in reception rather than at the end; this will affect any timestamp
376 included. The log line showing delivery is recorded before that showing
377 reception; it uses a new ">>" tag instead of "=>".
379 To support the feature, verify-callout connections can now use ESMTP and TLS.
380 The usual smtp transport options are honoured, plus a (new, default everything)
381 hosts_verify_avoid_tls.
383 New variable families named tls_in_cipher, tls_out_cipher etc. are introduced
384 for specific access to the information for each connection. The old names
385 are present for now but deprecated.
387 Not yet supported: IGNOREQUOTA, SIZE, PIPELINING.
389 8. New expansion operators ${listnamed:name} to get the content of a named list
390 and ${listcount:string} to count the items in a list.
392 9. New global option "gnutls_allow_auto_pkcs11", defaults false. The GnuTLS
393 rewrite in 4.80 combines with GnuTLS 2.12.0 or later, to autoload PKCS11
394 modules. For some situations this is desirable, but we expect admin in
395 those situations to know they want the feature. More commonly, it means
396 that GUI user modules get loaded and are broken by the setuid Exim being
397 unable to access files specified in environment variables and passed
398 through, thus breakage. So we explicitly inhibit the PKCS11 initialisation
399 unless this new option is set.
401 Some older OS's with earlier versions of GnuTLS might not have pkcs11 ability,
402 so have also added a build option which can be used to build Exim with GnuTLS
403 but without trying to use any kind of PKCS11 support. Uncomment this in the
406 AVOID_GNUTLS_PKCS11=yes
408 10. The "acl = name" condition on an ACL now supports optional arguments.
409 New expansion item "${acl {name}{arg}...}" and expansion condition
410 "acl {{name}{arg}...}" are added. In all cases up to nine arguments
411 can be used, appearing in $acl_arg1 to $acl_arg9 for the called ACL.
412 Variable $acl_narg contains the number of arguments. If the ACL sets
413 a "message =" value this becomes the result of the expansion item,
414 or the value of $value for the expansion condition. If the ACL returns
415 accept the expansion condition is true; if reject, false. A defer
416 return results in a forced fail.
418 11. Routers and transports can now have multiple headers_add and headers_remove
419 option lines. The concatenated list is used.
421 12. New ACL modifier "remove_header" can remove headers before message gets
422 handled by routers/transports.
424 13. New dnsdb lookup pseudo-type "a+". A sequence of "a6" (if configured),
425 "aaaa" and "a" lookups is done and the full set of results returned.
427 14. New expansion variable $headers_added with content from ACL add_header
428 modifier (but not yet added to message).
430 15. New 8bitmime status logging option for received messages. Log field "M8S".
432 16. New authenticated_sender logging option, adding to log field "A".
434 17. New expansion variables $router_name and $transport_name. Useful
435 particularly for debug_print as -bt command-line option does not
436 require privilege whereas -d does.
438 18. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_PRDR, per-recipient data responses per a
439 proposed extension to SMTP from Eric Hall.
441 19. The pipe transport has gained the force_command option, to allow
442 decorating commands from user .forward pipe aliases with prefix
443 wrappers, for instance.
445 20. Callout connections can now AUTH; the same controls as normal delivery
448 21. Support for DMARC, using opendmarc libs, can be enabled. It adds new
449 options: dmarc_forensic_sender, dmarc_history_file, and dmarc_tld_file.
450 It adds new expansion variables $dmarc_ar_header, $dmarc_status,
451 $dmarc_status_text, and $dmarc_used_domain. It adds a new acl modifier
452 dmarc_status. It adds new control flags dmarc_disable_verify and
453 dmarc_enable_forensic. The default for the dmarc_tld_file option is
454 "/etc/exim/opendmarc.tlds" and can be changed via EDITME.
456 22. Add expansion variable $authenticated_fail_id, which is the username
457 provided to the authentication method which failed. It is available
458 for use in subsequent ACL processing (typically quit or notquit ACLs).
460 23. New ACL modifier "udpsend" can construct a UDP packet to send to a given
463 24. New ${hexquote:..string..} expansion operator converts non-printable
464 characters in the string to \xNN form.
466 25. Experimental TPDA (Transport Post Delivery Action) function added.
467 Patch provided by Axel Rau.
469 26. Experimental Redis lookup added. Patch provided by Warren Baker.
475 1. New authenticator driver, "gsasl". Server-only (at present).
476 This is a SASL interface, licensed under GPL, which can be found at
477 http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/.
478 This system does not provide sources of data for authentication, so
479 careful use needs to be made of the conditions in Exim.
481 2. New authenticator driver, "heimdal_gssapi". Server-only.
482 A replacement for using cyrus_sasl with Heimdal, now that $KRB5_KTNAME
483 is no longer honoured for setuid programs by Heimdal. Use the
484 "server_keytab" option to point to the keytab.
486 3. The "pkg-config" system can now be used when building Exim to reference
487 cflags and library information for lookups and authenticators, rather
488 than having to update "CFLAGS", "AUTH_LIBS", "LOOKUP_INCLUDE" and
489 "LOOKUP_LIBS" directly. Similarly for handling the TLS library support
490 without adjusting "TLS_INCLUDE" and "TLS_LIBS".
492 In addition, setting PCRE_CONFIG=yes will query the pcre-config tool to
493 find the headers and libraries for PCRE.
495 4. New expansion variable $tls_bits.
497 5. New lookup type, "dbmjz". Key is an Exim list, the elements of which will
498 be joined together with ASCII NUL characters to construct the key to pass
499 into the DBM library. Can be used with gsasl to access sasldb2 files as
502 6. OpenSSL now supports TLS1.1 and TLS1.2 with OpenSSL 1.0.1.
504 Avoid release 1.0.1a if you can. Note that the default value of
505 "openssl_options" is no longer "+dont_insert_empty_fragments", as that
506 increased susceptibility to attack. This may still have interoperability
507 implications for very old clients (see version 4.31 change 37) but
508 administrators can choose to make the trade-off themselves and restore
509 compatibility at the cost of session security.
511 7. Use of the new expansion variable $tls_sni in the main configuration option
512 tls_certificate will cause Exim to re-expand the option, if the client
513 sends the TLS Server Name Indication extension, to permit choosing a
514 different certificate; tls_privatekey will also be re-expanded. You must
515 still set these options to expand to valid files when $tls_sni is not set.
517 The SMTP Transport has gained the option tls_sni, which will set a hostname
518 for outbound TLS sessions, and set $tls_sni too.
520 A new log_selector, +tls_sni, has been added, to log received SNI values
521 for Exim as a server.
523 8. The existing "accept_8bitmime" option now defaults to true. This means
524 that Exim is deliberately not strictly RFC compliant. We're following
525 Dan Bernstein's advice in http://cr.yp.to/smtp/8bitmime.html by default.
526 Those who disagree, or know that they are talking to mail servers that,
527 even today, are not 8-bit clean, need to turn off this option.
529 9. Exim can now be started with -bw (with an optional timeout, given as
530 -bw<timespec>). With this, stdin at startup is a socket that is
531 already listening for connections. This has a more modern name of
532 "socket activation", but forcing the activated socket to fd 0. We're
533 interested in adding more support for modern variants.
535 10. ${eval } now uses 64-bit values on supporting platforms. A new "G" suffix
536 for numbers indicates multiplication by 1024^3.
538 11. The GnuTLS support has been revamped; the three options gnutls_require_kx,
539 gnutls_require_mac & gnutls_require_protocols are no longer supported.
540 tls_require_ciphers is now parsed by gnutls_priority_init(3) as a priority
541 string, documentation for which is at:
542 http://www.gnutls.org/manual/html_node/Priority-Strings.html
544 SNI support has been added to Exim's GnuTLS integration too.
546 For sufficiently recent GnuTLS libraries, ${randint:..} will now use
547 gnutls_rnd(), asking for GNUTLS_RND_NONCE level randomness.
549 12. With OpenSSL, if built with EXPERIMENTAL_OCSP, a new option tls_ocsp_file
550 is now available. If the contents of the file are valid, then Exim will
551 send that back in response to a TLS status request; this is OCSP Stapling.
552 Exim will not maintain the contents of the file in any way: administrators
553 are responsible for ensuring that it is up-to-date.
555 See "experimental-spec.txt" for more details.
557 13. ${lookup dnsdb{ }} supports now SPF record types. They are handled
558 identically to TXT record lookups.
560 14. New expansion variable $tod_epoch_l for higher-precision time.
562 15. New global option tls_dh_max_bits, defaulting to current value of NSS
563 hard-coded limit of DH ephemeral bits, to fix interop problems caused by
564 GnuTLS 2.12 library recommending a bit count higher than NSS supports.
566 16. tls_dhparam now used by both OpenSSL and GnuTLS, can be path or identifier.
567 Option can now be a path or an identifier for a standard prime.
568 If unset, we use the DH prime from section 2.2 of RFC 5114, "ike23".
569 Set to "historic" to get the old GnuTLS behaviour of auto-generated DH
572 17. SSLv2 now disabled by default in OpenSSL. (Never supported by GnuTLS).
573 Use "openssl_options -no_sslv2" to re-enable support, if your OpenSSL
574 install was not built with OPENSSL_NO_SSL2 ("no-ssl2").
580 1. New options for the ratelimit ACL condition: /count= and /unique=.
581 The /noupdate option has been replaced by a /readonly option.
583 2. The SMTP transport's protocol option may now be set to "smtps", to
584 use SSL-on-connect outbound.
586 3. New variable $av_failed, set true if the AV scanner deferred; ie, when
587 there is a problem talking to the AV scanner, or the AV scanner running.
589 4. New expansion conditions, "inlist" and "inlisti", which take simple lists
590 and check if the search item is a member of the list. This does not
591 support named lists, but does subject the list part to string expansion.
593 5. Unless the new EXPAND_LISTMATCH_RHS build option is set when Exim was
594 built, Exim no longer performs string expansion on the second string of
595 the match_* expansion conditions: "match_address", "match_domain",
596 "match_ip" & "match_local_part". Named lists can still be used.
602 1. The global option "dns_use_edns0" may be set to coerce EDNS0 usage on
603 or off in the resolver library.
609 1. In addition to the existing LDAP and LDAP/SSL ("ldaps") support, there
610 is now LDAP/TLS support, given sufficiently modern OpenLDAP client
611 libraries. The following global options have been added in support of
612 this: ldap_ca_cert_dir, ldap_ca_cert_file, ldap_cert_file, ldap_cert_key,
613 ldap_cipher_suite, ldap_require_cert, ldap_start_tls.
615 2. The pipe transport now takes a boolean option, "freeze_signal", default
616 false. When true, if the external delivery command exits on a signal then
617 Exim will freeze the message in the queue, instead of generating a bounce.
619 3. Log filenames may now use %M as an escape, instead of %D (still available).
620 The %M pattern expands to yyyymm, providing month-level resolution.
622 4. The $message_linecount variable is now updated for the maildir_tag option,
623 in the same way as $message_size, to reflect the real number of lines,
624 including any header additions or removals from transport.
626 5. When contacting a pool of SpamAssassin servers configured in spamd_address,
627 Exim now selects entries randomly, to better scale in a cluster setup.
633 1. SECURITY FIX: privilege escalation flaw fixed. On Linux (and only Linux)
634 the flaw permitted the Exim run-time user to cause root to append to
635 arbitrary files of the attacker's choosing, with the content based
636 on content supplied by the attacker.
638 2. Exim now supports loading some lookup types at run-time, using your
639 platform's dlopen() functionality. This has limited platform support
640 and the intention is not to support every variant, it's limited to
641 dlopen(). This permits the main Exim binary to not be linked against
642 all the libraries needed for all the lookup types.
648 NOTE: this version is not guaranteed backwards-compatible, please read the
649 items below carefully
651 1. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
652 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
653 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
654 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
655 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
656 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
659 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
660 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
661 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
662 so that safety mechanism would have to be overridden for this option to
663 be able to take effect.
665 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
666 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
667 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
668 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
670 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
671 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
672 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
673 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
675 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
677 ClamAV's ExtendedDetectionInfo response format is now handled.
679 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
680 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
681 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
682 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
683 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
684 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
686 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
687 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
689 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
691 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
692 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
694 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
695 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
696 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
697 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
698 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
699 don't all make sense in all contexts:
702 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
703 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
704 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
706 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
707 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
708 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
709 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
710 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
711 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
712 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
713 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
714 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
715 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
718 8. There is a new expansion condition, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
719 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
720 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
722 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
724 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests.
726 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
727 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
728 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
729 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
730 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
733 11. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The default value for system_filter_user is now
734 the Exim run-time user, instead of root.
736 12. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is no longer optional and
737 is forced on. This is mitigated by the new build option
738 TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST which defines a list of configuration files which
739 are trusted; one per line. If a config file is owned by root and matches
740 a pathname in the list, then it may be invoked by the Exim build-time
741 user without Exim relinquishing root privileges.
743 13. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The Exim user is no longer automatically
744 trusted to supply -D<Macro[=Value]> overrides on the command-line. Going
745 forward, we recommend using TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST with shim configs that
746 include the main config. As a transition mechanism, we are temporarily
747 providing a work-around: the new build option WHITELIST_D_MACROS provides
748 a colon-separated list of macro names which may be overridden by the Exim
749 run-time user. The values of these macros are constrained to the regex
750 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$ (which explicitly does allow for empty values).
756 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
757 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
759 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
761 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
762 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
765 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
766 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
767 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
768 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
769 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
770 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
771 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
772 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
773 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
774 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
776 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
777 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
779 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
780 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
781 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
787 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
788 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
789 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
790 for details on conditionally disabling)
792 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
794 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
795 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
796 and{} expansion operator).
798 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
801 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
802 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
804 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
805 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
806 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
808 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
809 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
810 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
811 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
813 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
816 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
822 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
828 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
831 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
832 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
833 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
836 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
838 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
839 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
840 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
843 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
845 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
846 192.168.6.7 (for example).
848 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
849 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
850 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
851 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
853 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
855 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
856 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
857 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
860 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
861 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
862 only by an admin user.
864 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
865 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
866 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
867 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
868 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
870 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
871 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
876 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
878 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
879 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
880 (max $sender_rate_limit)
882 [... some other logic and tests...]
884 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
885 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
886 (max $sender_rate_limit)
887 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
891 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
892 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
893 line termination character(s).
895 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
896 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
897 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
899 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
900 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
901 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
902 message is queued, the remainder are also.
904 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
905 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
906 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
907 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
908 log files) that make the situation even worse.
910 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
911 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
912 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
914 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
915 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
916 connection. The possible values are:
918 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
919 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
920 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
921 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
922 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
923 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
924 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
925 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
926 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
927 tls-failed TLS failed to start
929 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
930 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
931 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
932 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
933 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
936 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
937 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
938 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
940 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
941 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
942 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
944 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
946 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
947 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
948 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
950 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
951 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
952 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
954 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
956 In an updating lookup, you could then write
958 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
960 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
962 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
964 you can still update the master by
966 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
968 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
969 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
970 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
977 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
978 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
979 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
982 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
983 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
984 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
985 rather than the default "any" matching.
987 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
988 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
989 other parameters to be varied.
991 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
992 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
994 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
996 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
998 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
999 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
1001 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
1002 after the connection to the server has been made.
1004 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
1005 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
1007 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
1008 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
1011 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
1012 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
1013 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
1014 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
1015 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
1017 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
1018 called forany and forall.
1020 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
1021 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
1022 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
1024 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
1026 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
1027 that makes it case-sensitive.
1029 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
1030 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
1031 items, typically addresses.
1033 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
1034 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
1035 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
1038 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
1039 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
1041 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
1044 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
1051 No new features were added to 4.66.
1057 No new features were added to 4.65.
1063 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
1064 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
1065 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
1068 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
1069 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
1071 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
1072 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
1073 number of authentication methods.
1075 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
1076 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
1077 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
1079 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
1080 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
1081 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
1082 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
1084 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
1086 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
1087 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
1088 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
1089 before doing the expansions.
1091 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
1092 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
1095 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
1096 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
1097 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
1099 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
1100 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
1102 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
1103 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
1104 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
1105 available for compatibility.)
1107 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
1108 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
1114 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
1117 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
1118 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
1121 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
1122 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
1123 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
1125 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
1126 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
1128 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
1130 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
1131 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
1133 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
1135 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
1137 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
1138 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
1139 each messages value for each variable.
1141 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
1142 same criteria without --not).
1148 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
1149 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
1150 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
1151 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
1152 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
1153 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
1155 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
1157 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
1158 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
1159 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
1162 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
1163 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
1164 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
1166 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
1167 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
1168 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
1169 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
1175 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
1176 the 4.60 release are:
1178 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
1180 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
1182 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
1183 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
1184 for other things in complicated expansions.
1186 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
1188 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
1189 resources used in pipe deliveries.
1191 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
1193 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
1195 There are a number of other additions too.
1201 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
1202 the 4.50 release are:
1204 . Support for SQLite.
1206 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
1208 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
1210 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
1212 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
1214 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
1216 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
1218 There are many more minor changes.
git://git.exim.org / exim.git / blob