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Date:      Tue, 19 Nov 1996 05:43:45 -0500 (EST)
From:      Thomas David Rivers <ponds!rivers@dg-rtp.dg.com>
To:        marcs@znep.com, ponds!mail.id.net!rls
Cc:        ponds!freebsd.org!freebsd-hackers, ponds!keltia.freenix.fr!roberto
Subject:   Re: BoS: Exploit for sendmail smtpd bug (ver. 8.7-8.8.2).
Message-ID:  <199611191043.FAA04667@lakes.water.net>

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> [moved to -hackers from security.  It started with a discussion of
> sendmail with uucp; I stated that sendmail still tries to use DNS no
> matter how you configure it and you have to recompile it to make it stop.]
> 
> On Mon, 18 Nov 1996, Robert Shady wrote:
> 
> > > Incorrect.  It RUNS without DNS but still TRIES to use it.  If you really
> > > don't have IP connectivity, then difference doesn't matter because it
> > > still works when the lookup fails, however it still does try and the
> > > difference does matter if you have partial IP connectivity.  I have a
> > > system setup with nocanonify and all the other config file tweaks I know
> > > of, and it still tries to use DNS as a tcpdump shows quite clearly.  This
> > > system is running 8.7.5, so things may have been changed in more recent
> > > versions but I can't say for sure; if this has changed in more recent
> > > versions, please let me know.
> > > 
> > > I _think_ the define that needs to be set to 0 is NAMED_BIND, but don't
> > > recall for sure.  This has been gone over before on the lists.
> > 
> > Out of curiosity, what interface exactly are you looking at if you aren't
> > running tcp/ip?
> 
> I am running TCP/IP, however only sometimes; ie. a dial on demand
> connection.  If it isn't recompiled, no matter how you configure it,
> sendmail will try a DNS lookup for each bit of mail it receives, causing
> the dial on demand link to come up.  I am looking at the ppp (tun0) 
> interface.  If you don't have IP running, or you don't have a route to a
> nameserver, or you don't have a nameserver, you won't notice the lookup
> but it still tries and, in this case, fails immediately.
> 
> 
> 

 Yes - we went through this when 2.1.5-RELEASE was created.

 Several people refered to the documentation that indicates you can
(via your sendmail.cf) have sendmail not use DNS... but I was unable
to make these work.

 If you compile sendmail (at least the version that originally came
with 2.1.5) with the right options (they are discussed in the 
compile-time configuration include file) - you can disable use of DNS.

 This is what I, eventually, had to do.

 You'll find the entire discussion of this in the mail archives.

	- Dave Rivers -



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