1 $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.176 2010/06/14 18:51:10 pdp Exp $
6 This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim.
7 Before a formal release, there may be quite a lot of detail so that people can
8 test from the snapshots or the CVS before the documentation is updated. Once
9 the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list.
15 1. In addition to the existing LDAP and LDAP/SSL ("ldaps") support, there
16 is now LDAP/TLS support, given sufficiently modern OpenLDAP client
17 libraries. The following global options have been added in support of
18 this: ldap_ca_cert_dir, ldap_ca_cert_file, ldap_cert_file, ldap_cert_key,
19 ldap_cipher_suite, ldap_require_cert, ldap_start_tls.
25 1. SECURITY FIX: privilege escalation flaw fixed. On Linux (and only Linux)
26 the flaw permitted the Exim run-time user to cause root to append to
27 arbitrary files of the attacker's choosing, with the content based
28 on content supplied by the attacker.
30 2. Exim now supports loading some lookup types at run-time, using your
31 platform's dlopen() functionality. This has limited platform support
32 and the intention is not to support every variant, it's limited to
33 dlopen(). This permits the main Exim binary to not be linked against
34 all the libraries needed for all the lookup types.
40 NOTE: this version is not guaranteed backwards-compatible, please read the
43 1. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
44 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
45 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
46 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
47 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
48 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
51 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
52 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
53 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
54 so that safety mechanism would have to be overriden for this option to
55 be able to take effect.
57 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
58 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
59 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
60 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
62 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
63 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
64 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
65 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
67 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
69 ClamAV's ExtendedDetectionInfo response format is now handled.
71 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
72 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
73 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
74 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
75 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
76 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
78 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
79 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
81 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
83 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
84 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
86 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
87 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
88 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
89 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
90 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
91 don't all make sense in all contexts:
94 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
95 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
96 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
98 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
99 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
100 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
101 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
102 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
103 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
104 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
105 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
106 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
107 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
110 8. There is a new expansion operator, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
111 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
112 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
114 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
116 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests,
118 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
119 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
120 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
121 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
122 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
125 11. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The default value for system_filter_user is now
126 the Exim run-time user, instead of root.
128 12. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is no longer optional and
129 is forced on. This is mitigated by the new build option
130 TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST which defines a list of configuration files which
131 are trusted; one per line. If a config file is owned by root and matches
132 a pathname in the list, then it may be invoked by the Exim build-time
133 user without Exim relinquishing root privileges.
135 13. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The Exim user is no longer automatically
136 trusted to supply -D<Macro[=Value]> overrides on the command-line. Going
137 forward, we recommend using TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST with shim configs that
138 include the main config. As a transition mechanism, we are temporarily
139 providing a work-around: the new build option WHITELIST_D_MACROS provides
140 a colon-separated list of macro names which may be overriden by the Exim
141 run-time user. The values of these macros are constrained to the regex
142 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$ (which explicitly does allow for empty values).
148 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
149 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
151 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
153 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
154 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
157 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
158 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
159 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
160 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
161 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
162 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
163 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
164 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
165 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
166 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
168 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
169 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
171 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
172 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
173 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
179 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
180 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
181 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
182 for details on conditionally disabling)
184 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
186 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
187 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
188 and{} expansion operator).
190 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
193 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
194 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
196 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
197 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
198 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
200 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
201 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
202 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
203 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
205 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
208 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
214 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
220 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
223 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
224 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
225 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
228 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
230 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
231 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
232 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
235 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
237 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
238 192.168.6.7 (for example).
240 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
241 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
242 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
243 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
245 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
247 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
248 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
249 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
252 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
253 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
254 only by an admin user.
256 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
257 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
258 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
259 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
260 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
262 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
263 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
268 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
270 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
271 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
272 (max $sender_rate_limit)
274 [... some other logic and tests...]
276 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
277 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
278 (max $sender_rate_limit)
279 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
283 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
284 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
285 line termination character(s).
287 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
288 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
289 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
291 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
292 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
293 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
294 message is queued, the remainder are also.
296 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
297 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
298 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
299 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
300 log files) that make the situation even worse.
302 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
303 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
304 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
306 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
307 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
308 connection. The possible values are:
310 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
311 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
312 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
313 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
314 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
315 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
316 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
317 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
318 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
319 tls-failed TLS failed to start
321 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
322 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
323 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
324 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
325 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
328 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
329 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
330 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
332 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
333 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
334 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
336 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
338 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
339 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
340 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
342 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
343 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
344 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
346 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
348 In an updating lookup, you could then write
350 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
352 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
354 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
356 you can still update the master by
358 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
360 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
361 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
362 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
369 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
370 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
371 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
374 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
375 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
376 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
377 rather than the default "any" matching.
379 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
380 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
381 other parameters to be varied.
383 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
384 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
386 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
388 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
390 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
391 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
393 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
394 after the connection to the server has been made.
396 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
397 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
399 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
400 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
403 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
404 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
405 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
406 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
407 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
409 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
410 called forany and forall.
412 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
413 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
414 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
416 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
418 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
419 that makes it case-sensitive.
421 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
422 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
423 items, typically addresses.
425 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
426 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
427 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
430 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
431 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
433 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
436 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
443 No new features were added to 4.66.
449 No new features were added to 4.65.
455 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
456 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
457 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
460 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
461 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
463 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
464 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
465 number of authentication methods.
467 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
468 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
469 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
471 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
472 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
473 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
474 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
476 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
478 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
479 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
480 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
481 before doing the expansions.
483 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
484 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
487 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
488 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
489 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
491 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
492 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
494 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
495 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
496 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
497 available for compatibility.)
499 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
500 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
506 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
509 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
510 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
513 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
514 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
515 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
517 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
518 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
520 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
522 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
523 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
525 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
527 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
529 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
530 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
531 each messages value for each variable.
533 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
534 same criteria without --not).
540 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
541 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
542 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
543 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
544 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
545 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
547 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
549 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
550 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
551 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
554 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
555 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
556 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
558 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
559 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
560 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
561 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
567 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
568 the 4.60 release are:
570 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
572 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
574 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
575 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
576 for other things in complicated expansions.
578 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
580 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
581 resources used in pipe deliveries.
583 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
585 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
587 There are a number of other additions too.
593 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
594 the 4.50 release are:
596 . Support for SQLite.
598 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
600 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
602 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
604 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
606 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
608 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
610 There are many more minor changes.