-$Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.32 2005/04/04 10:33:49 ph10 Exp $
+$Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.45 2005/05/23 16:58:55 fanf2 Exp $
New Features in Exim
--------------------
file contains a listing of all changes, including bug fixes.
+Exim version 4.52
+-----------------
+
+TF/01 Support for checking Client SMTP Authorization has been added. CSA is a
+ system which allows a site to advertise which machines are and are not
+ permitted to send email. This is done by placing special SRV records in
+ the DNS, which are looked up using the client's HELO domain. At this
+ time CSA is still an Internet-Draft.
+
+ Client SMTP Authorization checks are performed by the ACL condition
+ verify=csa. This will fail if the client is not authorized. If there is
+ a DNS problem, or if no valid CSA SRV record is found, or if the client
+ is authorized, the condition succeeds. These three cases can be
+ distinguished using the expansion variable $csa_status, which can take
+ one of the values "fail", "defer", "unknown", or "ok". The condition
+ does not itself defer because that would be likely to cause problems
+ for legitimate email.
+
+ The error messages produced by the CSA code include slightly more
+ detail. If $csa_status is "defer" this may be because of problems
+ looking up the CSA SRV record, or problems looking up the CSA target
+ address record. There are four reasons for $csa_status being "fail":
+ the client's host name is explicitly not authorized; the client's IP
+ address does not match any of the CSA target IP addresses; the client's
+ host name is authorized but it has no valid target IP addresses (e.g.
+ the target's addresses are IPv6 and the client is using IPv4); or the
+ client's host name has no CSA SRV record but a parent domain has
+ asserted that all subdomains must be explicitly authorized.
+
+ The verify=csa condition can take an argument which is the domain to
+ use for the DNS query. The default is verify=csa/$sender_helo_name.
+
+ This implementation includes an extension to CSA. If the query domain
+ is an address literal such as [192.0.2.95], or if it is a bare IP
+ address, Exim will search for CSA SRV records in the reverse DNS as if
+ the HELO domain was e.g. 95.2.0.192.in-addr.arpa. Therefore it is
+ meaningful to say, for example, verify=csa/$sender_host_address - in
+ fact, this is the check that Exim performs if the client does not say
+ HELO. This extension can be turned off by setting the main
+ configuration option dns_csa_use_reverse = false.
+
+ If a CSA SRV record is not found for the domain itself, then a search
+ is performed through its parent domains for a record which might be
+ making assertions about subdomains. The maximum depth of this search is
+ limited using the main configuration option dns_csa_search_limit, which
+ takes the value 5 by default. Exim does not look for CSA SRV records in
+ a top level domain, so the default settings handle HELO domains as long
+ as seven (hostname.five.four.three.two.one.com) which encompasses the
+ vast majority of legitimate HELO domains.
+
+ The dnsdb lookup also has support for CSA. Although dnsdb already
+ supports SRV lookups, this is not sufficient because of the extra
+ parent domain search behaviour of CSA, and (as with PTR lookups)
+ dnsdb also turns IP addresses into lookups in the reverse DNS space.
+ The result of ${lookup dnsdb {csa=$sender_helo_name} } has two
+ space-separated fields: an authorization code and a target host name.
+ The authorization code can be "Y" for yes, "N" for no, "X" for explicit
+ authorization required but absent, or "?" for unknown.
+
+PH/01 The amount of output produced by the "make" process has been reduced,
+ because the compile lines are often rather long, making it all pretty
+ unreadable. The new style is along the lines of the 2.6 Linux kernel:
+ just a short line for each module that is being compiled or linked.
+ However, it is still possible to get the full output, by calling "make"
+ like this:
+
+ FULLECHO='' make -e
+
+ The value of FULLECHO defaults to "@", the flag character that suppresses
+ command reflection in "make". When you ask for the full output, it is
+ given in addition to the the short output.
+
+TF/02 There have been two changes concerned with submission mode:
+
+ Until now submission mode always left the return path alone, whereas
+ locally-submitted messages from untrusted users have the return path
+ fixed to the user's email address. Submission mode now fixes the return
+ path to the same address as is used to create the Sender: header. If
+ /sender_retain is specified then both the Sender: header and the return
+ path are left alone.
+
+ Note that the changes caused by submission mode take effect after the
+ predata ACL. This means that any sender checks performed before the
+ fix-ups will use the untrusted sender address specified by the user, not
+ the trusted sender address specified by submission mode. Although this
+ might be slightly unexpected, it does mean that you can configure ACL
+ checks to spot that a user is trying to spoof another's address, for
+ example.
+
+ There is also a new /name= option for submission mode which allows you
+ to specify the user's full name to be included in the Sender: header.
+ For example:
+
+ accept authenticated = *
+ control = submission/name=${lookup {$authenticated_id} \
+ lsearch {/etc/exim/namelist} }
+
+ The namelist file contains entries like
+
+ fanf: Tony Finch
+
+ And the resulting Sender: header looks like
+
+ Sender: Tony Finch <fanf@exim.org>
+
+TF/03 The control = fakereject ACL modifier now has a fakedefer counterpart,
+ which works in exactly the same way except it causes a fake SMTP 450
+ response after the message data instead of a fake SMTP 550 response.
+ You must take care when using fakedefer because it will cause messages
+ to be duplicated when the sender retries. Therefore you should not use
+ fakedefer if the message will be delivered normally.
+
+TF/04 There is a new ratelimit ACL condition which can be used to measure
+ and control the rate at which clients can send email. This is more
+ powerful than the existing smtp_ratelimit_* options, because those
+ options only control the rate of commands in a single SMTP session,
+ whereas the new ratelimit condition works across all connections
+ (concurrent and sequential) to the same host.
+
+ The syntax of the ratelimit condition is:
+
+ ratelimit = <m> / <p> / <options> / <key>
+
+ If the average client sending rate is greater than m messages per time
+ period p then the condition is true, otherwise it is false.
+
+ The parameter p is the smoothing time constant, in the form of an Exim
+ time interval e.g. 8h for eight hours. A larger time constant means it
+ takes Exim longer to forget a client's past behaviour. The parameter m is
+ the maximum number of messages that a client can send in a fast burst. By
+ increasing both m and p but keeping m/p constant, you can allow a client
+ to send more messages in a burst without changing its overall sending
+ rate limit. Conversely, if m and p are both small then messages must be
+ sent at an even rate.
+
+ The key is used to look up the data used to calcluate the client's
+ average sending rate. This data is stored in a database maintained by
+ Exim in its spool directory alongside the retry database etc. For
+ example, you can limit the sending rate of each authenticated user,
+ independent of the computer they are sending from, by setting the key
+ to $authenticated_id. The default key is $sender_host_address.
+
+ Each ratelimit condition can have up to two options. The first option
+ specifies what Exim measures the rate of, and the second specifies how
+ Exim handles excessively fast clients.
+
+ The per_mail option means that it measures the client's rate of sending
+ messages. This is the default if none of the per_* options is specified.
+
+ The per_conn option means that it measures the client's connection rate.
+
+ The per_byte option limits the sender's email bandwidth. Note that it
+ is best to use this option in the DATA ACL; if it is used in an earlier
+ ACL it relies on the SIZE parameter on the MAIL command, which may be
+ inaccurate or completely missing. You can follow the limit m in the
+ configuration with K, M, or G to specify limits in kilobytes,
+ megabytes, or gigabytes respectively.
+
+ The per_cmd option means that Exim recomputes the rate every time the
+ condition is processed, which can be used to limit the SMTP command rate.
+ The alias per_rcpt is provided for use in the RCPT ACL instead of per_cmd
+ to make it clear that the effect is to limit the rate at which recipients
+ are accepted. Note that in this case the rate limiting engine will see a
+ message with many recipients as a large high-speed burst.
+
+ If a client's average rate is greater than the maximum, the rate
+ limiting engine can react in two possible ways, depending on the
+ presence of the strict or leaky options. This is independent of the
+ other counter-measures (e.g. rejecting the message) that may be
+ specified by the rest of the ACL. The default mode is leaky, which
+ avoids a sender's over-aggressive retry rate preventing it from getting
+ any email through.
+
+ The strict option means that the client's recorded rate is always
+ updated. The effect of this is that Exim measures the client's average
+ rate of attempts to send email, which can be much higher than the
+ maximum. If the client is over the limit it will be subjected to
+ counter-measures until it slows down below the maximum rate.
+
+ The leaky option means that the client's recorded rate is not updated
+ if it is above the limit. The effect of this is that Exim measures the
+ client's average rate of successfully sent email, which cannot be
+ greater than the maximum. If the client is over the limit it will
+ suffer some counter-measures, but it will still be able to send email
+ at the configured maximum rate, whatever the rate of its attempts.
+
+ As a side-effect, the ratelimit condition will set the expansion
+ variables $sender_rate containing the client's computed rate,
+ $sender_rate_limit containing the configured value of m, and
+ $sender_rate_period containing the configured value of p.
+
+ Exim's other ACL facilities are used to define what counter-measures
+ are taken when the rate limit is exceeded. This might be anything from
+ logging a warning (e.g. while measuring existing sending rates in order
+ to define our policy), through time delays to slow down fast senders,
+ up to rejecting the message. For example,
+
+ # Log all senders' rates
+ warn
+ ratelimit = 0 / 1h / strict
+ log_message = \
+ Sender rate $sender_rate > $sender_rate_limit / $sender_rate_period
+
+ # Slow down fast senders
+ warn
+ ratelimit = 100 / 1h / per_rcpt / strict
+ delay = ${eval: 10 * ($sender_rate - $sender_rate_limit) }
+
+ # Keep authenticated users under control
+ deny
+ ratelimit = 100 / 1d / strict / $authenticated_id
+
+ # System-wide rate limit
+ defer
+ message = Sorry, too busy. Try again later.
+ ratelimit = 10 / 1s / $primary_hostname
+
+ # Restrict incoming rate from each host, with a default rate limit
+ # set using a macro and special cases looked up in a table.
+ defer
+ message = Sender rate $sender_rate exceeds \
+ $sender_rate_limit messages per $sender_rate_period
+ ratelimit = ${lookup {$sender_host_address} \
+ cdb {DB/ratelimits.cdb} \
+ {$value} {RATELIMIT} }
+
+
Version 4.51
------------
MIME parts in non-SMTP messages. It operates in exactly the same way as
acl_smtp_mime
+PH/05 It is now possible to redefine a macro within the configuration file.
+ The macro must have been previously defined within the configuration (or
+ an included file). A definition on the command line using the -D option
+ causes all definitions and redefinitions within the file to be ignored.
+ In other words, -D overrides any values that are set in the file.
+ Redefinition is specified by using '==' instead of '='. For example:
+
+ MAC1 = initial value
+ ...
+ MAC1 == updated value
+
+ Redefinition does not alter the order in which the macros are applied to
+ the subsequent lines of the configuration file. It is still the same
+ order in which the macros were originally defined. All that changes is
+ the macro's value. Redefinition makes it possible to accumulate values.
+ For example:
+
+ MAC1 = initial value
+ ...
+ MAC1 == MAC1 and something added
+
+ This can be helpful in situations where the configuration file is built
+ from a number of other files.
+
+PH/06 Macros may now be defined or redefined between router, transport,
+ authenticator, or ACL definitions, as well as in the main part of the
+ configuration. They may not, however, be changed within an individual
+ driver or ACL, or in the local_scan, retry, or rewrite sections of the
+ configuration.
+
+PH/07 $acl_verify_message is now set immediately after the failure of a
+ verification in an ACL, and so is available in subsequent modifiers. In
+ particular, the message can be preserved by coding like this:
+
+ warn !verify = sender
+ set acl_m0 = $acl_verify_message
+
+ Previously, $acl_verify_message was set only while expanding "message"
+ and "log_message" when a very denied access.
+
+PH/08 The redirect router has two new options, sieve_useraddress and
+ sieve_subaddress. These are passed to a Sieve filter to specify the :user
+ and :subaddress parts of an address. Both options are unset by default.
+ However, when a Sieve filter is run, if sieve_useraddress is unset, the
+ entire original local part (including any prefix or suffix) is used for
+ :user. An unset subaddress is treated as an empty subaddress.
+
+PH/09 Quota values can be followed by G as well as K and M.
+
+PH/10 $message_linecount is a new variable that contains the total number of
+ lines in the header and body of the message. Compare $body_linecount,
+ which is the count for the body only. During the DATA and
+ content-scanning ACLs, $message_linecount contains the number of lines
+ received. Before delivery happens (that is, before filters, routers, and
+ transports run) the count is increased to include the Received: header
+ line that Exim standardly adds, and also any other header lines that are
+ added by ACLs. The blank line that separates the message header from the
+ body is not counted. Here is an example of the use of this variable in a
+ DATA ACL:
+
+ deny message = Too many lines in message header
+ condition = \
+ ${if <{250}{${eval: $message_linecount - $body_linecount}}}
+
+ In the MAIL and RCPT ACLs, the value is zero because at that stage the
+ message has not yet been received.
+
+PH/11 In a ${run expansion, the variable $value (which contains the standard
+ output) is now also usable in the "else" string.
+
+PH/12 In a pipe transport, although a timeout while waiting for the pipe
+ process to complete was treated as a delivery failure, a timeout while
+ writing the message to the pipe was logged, but erroneously treated as a
+ successful delivery. Such timeouts include transport filter timeouts. For
+ consistency with the overall process timeout, these timeouts are now
+ treated as errors, giving rise to delivery failures by default. However,
+ there is now a new Boolean option for the pipe transport called
+ timeout_defer, which, if set TRUE, converts the failures into defers for
+ both kinds of timeout. A transport filter timeout is now identified in
+ the log output.
+
Version 4.50
------------
git://git.exim.org / users / heiko / exim.git / blobdiff