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.
21 2. The pipe transport now takes a boolean option, "freeze_signal", default
22 false. When true, if the external delivery command exits on a signal then
23 Exim will freeze the message in the queue, instead of generating a bounce.
29 1. SECURITY FIX: privilege escalation flaw fixed. On Linux (and only Linux)
30 the flaw permitted the Exim run-time user to cause root to append to
31 arbitrary files of the attacker's choosing, with the content based
32 on content supplied by the attacker.
34 2. Exim now supports loading some lookup types at run-time, using your
35 platform's dlopen() functionality. This has limited platform support
36 and the intention is not to support every variant, it's limited to
37 dlopen(). This permits the main Exim binary to not be linked against
38 all the libraries needed for all the lookup types.
44 NOTE: this version is not guaranteed backwards-compatible, please read the
47 1. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
48 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
49 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
50 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
51 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
52 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
55 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
56 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
57 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
58 so that safety mechanism would have to be overriden for this option to
59 be able to take effect.
61 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
62 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
63 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
64 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
66 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
67 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
68 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
69 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
71 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
73 ClamAV's ExtendedDetectionInfo response format is now handled.
75 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
76 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
77 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
78 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
79 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
80 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
82 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
83 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
85 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
87 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
88 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
90 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
91 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
92 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
93 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
94 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
95 don't all make sense in all contexts:
98 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
99 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
100 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
102 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
103 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
104 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
105 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
106 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
107 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
108 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
109 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
110 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
111 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
114 8. There is a new expansion operator, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
115 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
116 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
118 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
120 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests,
122 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
123 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
124 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
125 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
126 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
129 11. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The default value for system_filter_user is now
130 the Exim run-time user, instead of root.
132 12. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is no longer optional and
133 is forced on. This is mitigated by the new build option
134 TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST which defines a list of configuration files which
135 are trusted; one per line. If a config file is owned by root and matches
136 a pathname in the list, then it may be invoked by the Exim build-time
137 user without Exim relinquishing root privileges.
139 13. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The Exim user is no longer automatically
140 trusted to supply -D<Macro[=Value]> overrides on the command-line. Going
141 forward, we recommend using TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST with shim configs that
142 include the main config. As a transition mechanism, we are temporarily
143 providing a work-around: the new build option WHITELIST_D_MACROS provides
144 a colon-separated list of macro names which may be overriden by the Exim
145 run-time user. The values of these macros are constrained to the regex
146 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$ (which explicitly does allow for empty values).
152 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
153 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
155 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
157 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
158 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
161 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
162 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
163 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
164 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
165 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
166 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
167 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
168 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
169 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
170 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
172 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
173 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
175 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
176 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
177 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
183 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
184 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
185 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
186 for details on conditionally disabling)
188 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
190 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
191 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
192 and{} expansion operator).
194 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
197 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
198 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
200 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
201 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
202 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
204 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
205 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
206 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
207 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
209 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
212 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
218 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
224 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
227 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
228 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
229 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
232 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
234 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
235 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
236 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
239 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
241 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
242 192.168.6.7 (for example).
244 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
245 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
246 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
247 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
249 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
251 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
252 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
253 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
256 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
257 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
258 only by an admin user.
260 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
261 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
262 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
263 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
264 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
266 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
267 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
272 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
274 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
275 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
276 (max $sender_rate_limit)
278 [... some other logic and tests...]
280 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
281 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
282 (max $sender_rate_limit)
283 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
287 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
288 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
289 line termination character(s).
291 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
292 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
293 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
295 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
296 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
297 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
298 message is queued, the remainder are also.
300 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
301 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
302 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
303 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
304 log files) that make the situation even worse.
306 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
307 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
308 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
310 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
311 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
312 connection. The possible values are:
314 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
315 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
316 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
317 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
318 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
319 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
320 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
321 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
322 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
323 tls-failed TLS failed to start
325 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
326 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
327 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
328 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
329 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
332 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
333 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
334 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
336 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
337 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
338 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
340 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
342 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
343 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
344 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
346 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
347 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
348 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
350 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
352 In an updating lookup, you could then write
354 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
356 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
358 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
360 you can still update the master by
362 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
364 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
365 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
366 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
373 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
374 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
375 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
378 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
379 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
380 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
381 rather than the default "any" matching.
383 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
384 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
385 other parameters to be varied.
387 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
388 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
390 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
392 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
394 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
395 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
397 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
398 after the connection to the server has been made.
400 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
401 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
403 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
404 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
407 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
408 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
409 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
410 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
411 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
413 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
414 called forany and forall.
416 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
417 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
418 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
420 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
422 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
423 that makes it case-sensitive.
425 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
426 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
427 items, typically addresses.
429 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
430 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
431 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
434 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
435 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
437 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
440 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
447 No new features were added to 4.66.
453 No new features were added to 4.65.
459 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
460 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
461 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
464 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
465 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
467 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
468 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
469 number of authentication methods.
471 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
472 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
473 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
475 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
476 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
477 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
478 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
480 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
482 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
483 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
484 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
485 before doing the expansions.
487 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
488 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
491 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
492 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
493 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
495 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
496 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
498 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
499 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
500 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
501 available for compatibility.)
503 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
504 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
510 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
513 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
514 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
517 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
518 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
519 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
521 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
522 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
524 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
526 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
527 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
529 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
531 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
533 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
534 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
535 each messages value for each variable.
537 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
538 same criteria without --not).
544 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
545 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
546 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
547 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
548 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
549 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
551 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
553 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
554 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
555 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
558 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
559 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
560 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
562 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
563 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
564 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
565 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
571 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
572 the 4.60 release are:
574 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
576 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
578 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
579 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
580 for other things in complicated expansions.
582 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
584 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
585 resources used in pipe deliveries.
587 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
589 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
591 There are a number of other additions too.
597 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
598 the 4.50 release are:
600 . Support for SQLite.
602 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
604 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
606 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
608 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
610 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
612 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
614 There are many more minor changes.