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Posted to users@spamassassin.apache.org by "drew.woz@gmail.com" <dr...@gmail.com> on 2012/09/02 22:35:41 UTC

Header exposes account name

Hello,

I've poked around the archives and faq and cannot find a solution for my 
case. Our Church has a website hosted by a popular service and recently 
we setup email accounts plus SpamAssassin. It is all working nicely 
except for one alarming thing I found in spamassassin generated headers. 
They all now mention our hosting service account name (foobar) in these 
areas:

Received: from foobar by hoster.com with local-bsmtp (Exim 4.76)
...
X-Identified-User: {2555:hoster.com:foobar:churchdomain.org}

I've attempted an exim filter to translate the account name to something 
else but that does not seem to work. Is there any way to configure 
spamassassin so exclude the user account from generated headers?

This is a huge security issue that can expose the account name when 
users reply to incoming emails.

Thanks for all suggestions.

SA 3.3.1, with spamd started by server as:
/usr/bin/spamd -d --timeout-child=60 --allowed-ips=127.0.0.1 
--max-conn-per-child=500 --pidfile=/var/run/spamd.pid --max-children=10 
--max-spare=5

EXIM 4.76

Shared server:
Linux version 2.6.32-20120131.55.1.zzz.x86_64 
(machbuild@build6.hoster.com) (gcc version 4.4.6 20110731 (Red Hat 
4.4.6-3) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Tue Jan 31 15:43:27 EST 2012

Re: Header exposes account name

Posted by "drew.woz@gmail.com" <dr...@gmail.com>.
It does appear to be the (exim?) filtering that is adding the foobar 
account name.  Receiving an email always adds Received and 
X-Identified-User fields plus account name. While sending and replying 
always delivers X-Identified-User plus account name.

Thanks for all the help. Will redirect focus on Exim.

On 2012-09-02 8:01 PM, RW wrote:
> On Sun, 02 Sep 2012 18:48:15 -0400
> drew.woz@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> Gentlemen,
>>
>> Thanks for replying so quickly. I'm quite the newbee in this area and
>> am grateful for your advise. While the new header entries were first
>> noticed after enabling SA, it was not obvious that Exim could be
>> another suspect. I will investigate whether it can configured to
>> interpose or change the default identified user. I will also check
>> with our hoster whether the account name identifier can be replaced
>> by something else.
>>
>> If that doesn't lead anywhere, would there be an SA option for
>> specifying an alternate identifier or agent name that is piped to the
>> glue and Exim layers?
>
> Why do you care? Your concern was:
>
>> This is a huge security issue that can expose the account name when
>> users reply to incoming emails.
>
> but email replies don't quote those header.
>


Re: Header exposes account name

Posted by RW <rw...@googlemail.com>.
On Sun, 02 Sep 2012 18:48:15 -0400
drew.woz@gmail.com wrote:

> Gentlemen,
> 
> Thanks for replying so quickly. I'm quite the newbee in this area and
> am grateful for your advise. While the new header entries were first 
> noticed after enabling SA, it was not obvious that Exim could be
> another suspect. I will investigate whether it can configured to
> interpose or change the default identified user. I will also check
> with our hoster whether the account name identifier can be replaced
> by something else.
> 
> If that doesn't lead anywhere, would there be an SA option for 
> specifying an alternate identifier or agent name that is piped to the 
> glue and Exim layers?

Why do you care? Your concern was:

> This is a huge security issue that can expose the account name when 
> users reply to incoming emails.

but email replies don't quote those header. 

Re: Header exposes account name

Posted by "drew.woz@gmail.com" <dr...@gmail.com>.
Gentlemen,

Thanks for replying so quickly. I'm quite the newbee in this area and am 
grateful for your advise. While the new header entries were first 
noticed after enabling SA, it was not obvious that Exim could be another 
suspect. I will investigate whether it can configured to interpose or 
change the default identified user. I will also check with our hoster 
whether the account name identifier can be replaced by something else.

If that doesn't lead anywhere, would there be an SA option for 
specifying an alternate identifier or agent name that is piped to the 
glue and Exim layers?

Regards, Drew

On 2012-09-02 5:44 PM, wolfgang wrote:
> On 2012-09-02 23:14, Dave Funk wrote:
>
>> Not sure where that 'X-Identified-User' header comes from, maybe
>> it's an Exim thing. It's not a SA header. All headers that SA adds
>> start with 'X-Spam-'  (eg: X-Spam-Report: or X-Spam-Status: ).
>>
>> It could be that the "glue" you're using to connect SA with Exim is
>> adding those headers (or changing the Exim config, so it now adds
>> them) but that's not SA's responsibility. There are a variety of ways
>> to connect SA into a mail system, each with its own characteristics.
>
>> Regardless, this looks more like an Exim question than a SA question.
>
> All the google search results for "X-Identified-User" that I have viewed
> show Exim being involved, I think you should rather post your question
> to an Exim related mailing list.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> wolfgang


Re: Header exposes account name

Posted by wolfgang <me...@gmx.net>.
On 2012-09-02 23:14, Dave Funk wrote:

> Not sure where that 'X-Identified-User' header comes from, maybe
> it's an Exim thing. It's not a SA header. All headers that SA adds
> start with 'X-Spam-'  (eg: X-Spam-Report: or X-Spam-Status: ).
>
> It could be that the "glue" you're using to connect SA with Exim is
> adding those headers (or changing the Exim config, so it now adds
> them) but that's not SA's responsibility. There are a variety of ways
> to connect SA into a mail system, each with its own characteristics.

> Regardless, this looks more like an Exim question than a SA question.

All the google search results for "X-Identified-User" that I have viewed 
show Exim being involved, I think you should rather post your question 
to an Exim related mailing list.

Hope this helps,

wolfgang

Re: Header exposes account name

Posted by Dave Funk <db...@engineering.uiowa.edu>.
Why are you blaming SpamAssasin for those headers?

The 'Received:' header is a standard "trace" header that your MTA is 
supposed to add to each message that it processes (see RFC-2822).
Note the end of the header you quoted, it even has Exim's name in it.

Not sure where that 'X-Identified-User' header comes from, maybe
it's an Exim thing. It's not a SA header. All headers that SA adds
start with 'X-Spam-'  (eg: X-Spam-Report: or X-Spam-Status: ).

It could be that the "glue" you're using to connect SA with Exim is
adding those headers (or changing the Exim config, so it now adds them)
but that's not SA's responsibility. There are a variety of ways to connect
SA into a mail system, each with its own characteristics.

Do really even need to worry about this?
Under normal usage a user's reply does not pass back out such internal
headers, it removes them and generates new headers.

Regardless, this looks more like an Exim question than a SA question.

On Sun, 2 Sep 2012, drew.woz@gmail.com wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've poked around the archives and faq and cannot find a solution for my 
> case. Our Church has a website hosted by a popular service and recently we 
> setup email accounts plus SpamAssassin. It is all working nicely except for 
> one alarming thing I found in spamassassin generated headers. They all now 
> mention our hosting service account name (foobar) in these areas:
>
> Received: from foobar by hoster.com with local-bsmtp (Exim 4.76)
> ...
> X-Identified-User: {2555:hoster.com:foobar:churchdomain.org}
>
> I've attempted an exim filter to translate the account name to something else 
> but that does not seem to work. Is there any way to configure spamassassin so 
> exclude the user account from generated headers?
>
> This is a huge security issue that can expose the account name when users 
> reply to incoming emails.
>
> Thanks for all suggestions.
>
> SA 3.3.1, with spamd started by server as:
> /usr/bin/spamd -d --timeout-child=60 --allowed-ips=127.0.0.1 
> --max-conn-per-child=500 --pidfile=/var/run/spamd.pid --max-children=10 
> --max-spare=5
>
> EXIM 4.76
>
> Shared server:
> Linux version 2.6.32-20120131.55.1.zzz.x86_64 (machbuild@build6.hoster.com) 
> (gcc version 4.4.6 20110731 (Red Hat 4.4.6-3) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Tue Jan 31 
> 15:43:27 EST 2012
>

-- 
Dave Funk                                  University of Iowa
<dbfunk (at) engineering.uiowa.edu>        College of Engineering
319/335-5751   FAX: 319/384-0549           1256 Seamans Center
Sys_admin/Postmaster/cell_admin            Iowa City, IA 52242-1527
#include <std_disclaimer.h>
Better is not better, 'standard' is better. B{