Greyfix

Copyright 2007 by Kim Minh Kaplan

Greyfix is the greylisting policy daemon for Postfix written by Kim Minh Kaplan. Greylisting is an anti spam technique described by Evan Harris. Postfix is a popular mail transport agent developped by Wietse Zweitze Venema. Greyfix uses Postfix policy mechanism to enable greylisting with Postfix.

Latest version
Features
Requirements
Quickstart
Usage
Notes
TODO
BUGS
Older versions

It is recommended that you use at least version 0.3.8.

Latest version

greyfix-0.3.9.tar.gz (PGP signature)

Features

Requirements

Quickstart

Greyfix uses GNU's build system. To install the greyfix daemon just type the following commands:

    $ gzip -cd greyfix-0.3.9.tar.gz | tar xf -
    $ cd greyfix-0.3.9
    $ ./configure
    $ make
    $ su -c 'make install'

Edit Postfix's master configuration file, /etc/postfix/master.cf, and add the following (if you are running Solaris see below):

greyfix    unix  -       n       n       -       -       spawn
  user=nobody argv=/usr/local/sbin/greyfix -/ 24

Edit Postfix's main configuration file, /etc/postfix/main.cf and add the following (not for Solaris):

smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks,
  reject_unauth_destination,
  check_policy_service unix:private/greyfix

If there is already a smtpd_recipient_restrictions configuration line you should edit it rather than add a new one. The important part for greyfix is that you should add check_policy_service unix:private/greyfix to it.

Finally have postfix reload its configuration with postfix reload.

Solaris

A user reported a Corrupted DB on x64 Solaris 10 U4. If you want to help me track this, please contact me.

http://www.postfix.org/SMTPD_POLICY_README.html has some important note for Solaris. The important thing to note is that Solaris UNIX-domain sockets do not work reliably. Use TCP sockets instead. Here is what you should add to your /etc/postfix/master.cf:

127.0.0.1:9998  inet  n       n       n       -       9       spawn
  user=nobody argv=/usr/local/sbin/greyfix -/ 24

and to your /etc/postfix/main.cf:

smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks,
  reject_unauth_destination,
  check_policy_service inet:127.0.0.1:9998
127.0.0.1:9998_time_limit = 3600

Usage

greyfix [-V] [-v] [-d] [-h <Berkeley DB home directory>] [-g <greylist delay>]
    [-b <bloc maximum idle>] [-p <pass maximum idle>] [-r <reject action>]
    [-G <greylisted action>] [-/ <network bits>] [--dump-triplets] [--help]

    -b <seconds>, --bloc-max-idle <seconds>

	This determines how many seconds of life are given to a record
	that is created from a new mail (ip, from, to) triplet.  Note
	that the window created by this setting for passing mails is
	reduced by the amount set for --greylist-delay.  NOTE: See
	also --pass-max-idle.  Defaults to 18000 (5 hours).

    -d, --debug

	Debug logging

    -g <seconds>, --greylist-delay <seconds>

	This determines how many seconds we will block inbound mail
	that is from a previously unknown (ip, from, to) triplet.  If
	it is set to zero, incoming mail association will be learned,
	but no deliveries will be tempfailed.  Use a setting of zero
	with caution, as it will learn spammers as well as legitimate
	senders.  Defaults to 3480 (58 minutes).

    -h <Berkeley DB home directory>, --home <Berkeley DB home directory>

	Location of the Berkeley DB environment home location (the
	default is autoconf's $localstatedir/greyfix
	i.e. /usr/local/var/lib/greyfix).

    --help

        Show usage information.

    -p <seconds>, --pass-max-idle <seconds>

	How much life (in secs) to give to a record we are updating
	from an allowed (passed) email.

	The default is 36 days, which should be enough to handle
	messages that may only be sent once a month, or on things like
	the first monday of the month (which sometimes means 5 weeks).
	Plus, we add a day for a delivery buffer.

    -r <reject action>, --reject-action <reject action>

        The reject action directive that will be used.  See access(5)
        for valid actions.  The string expands %d to the number of
        seconds, %p to the empty string if %d expands to 1 or "s"
        otherwise, %s to " " and %% to "%".

        The default is "DEFER_IF_PERMIT Greylisted by Greyfix X.Y.Z,
        try again in %d second%p.  See
        http://www.kim-minh.com/pub/greyfix/ for more information.".
        http://cvs.puremagic.com/viewcvs/greylisting/schema/whitelist_ip.txt?r1=1.10&r2=1.11
        suggests that a 451 SMTP error code is a better idea.

    -G <greylisted action>, --greylisted-action <greylisted action>

        The action that will be used the first time a triplet passes
        greylisting.  Same expansion as for --reject-action.

        The default is "PREPEND X-Greyfix: Greylisted by Grefix X.Y.Z
        for %d second%p.  See http://www.kim-minh.com/pub/greyfix/ for
        more information."

    -v, --verbose

	Verbose logging

    -V, --version

        Show version information.

    -/ <nbits>, --network-prefix <nbits>

	Only consider the first <nbits> bits of an IPv4 address.
	Defaults to 32 i.e. the whole adresse is significant.

    --dump-triplets

        Dump the triplets database to stdout.  Mostly for debugging
        purposes.

Notes

GNU Autoconf's default value for $(localstatedir) is /usr/local/var/lib which is quite different from what most Unix distribution use. You'll probably want to invoke configure like this:

    $ ./configure --localstatedir=/var/lib

This makes Greyfix DB be located in /var/lib/greyfix. Alternatively you can use the -h <DB home> command line option but do not forget to create the directory and give it correct permissions so that Greyfix can access it.

Greyfix uses syslog with facility LOG_MAIL. As such the log messages should appear along postfix's.

If you log messages with DEBUG serverity you will see some messages saying something like "DEBUG: BDB-16: db_env->remove returned: Device busy". They are not error messages and are normal when multiple greyfix daemons operate concurrently.

You should use some whitelisting of some sort for some servers. A good starting base is whitelist_ip.txt.

TODO

BUGS

Bugs are filed on Greyfix's ticket page. To report a bug see first check that it is not already present in the list. Then you can create a New Ticket.

Older versions

Note that version 0.3.8 fixes important bugs. Do not use earlier versions.