From owner-freebsd-security Sat Sep 23 6:16: 2 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-security@freebsd.org Received: from mail.gmx.net (pop.gmx.net [194.221.183.20]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id C90B637B440 for ; Sat, 23 Sep 2000 06:15:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 20057 invoked by uid 0); 23 Sep 2000 13:15:47 -0000 Received: from p3ee20a92.dip.t-dialin.net (HELO speedy.gsinet) (62.226.10.146) by mail.gmx.net with SMTP; 23 Sep 2000 13:15:47 -0000 Received: (from sittig@localhost) by speedy.gsinet (8.8.8/8.8.8) id OAA13963 for security@FreeBSD.ORG; Sat, 23 Sep 2000 14:55:57 +0200 Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 14:55:57 +0200 From: Gerhard Sittig To: security@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: sendmail default run state Message-ID: <20000923145557.G5065@speedy.gsinet> Mail-Followup-To: security@FreeBSD.ORG References: <20000922222026.A33410@mithrandr.moria.org> <200009222118.e8MLId117503@orthanc.ab.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0i In-Reply-To: <200009222118.e8MLId117503@orthanc.ab.ca>; from lyndon@orthanc.ab.ca on Fri, Sep 22, 2000 at 03:18:39PM -0600 Organization: System Defenestrators Inc. Sender: owner-freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Fri, Sep 22, 2000 at 15:18 -0600, Lyndon Nerenberg wrote: > >>>>> "Neil" == Neil Blakey-Milner writes: > > [ ... talking to SMTP servers ... ] > > Neil> The only one I can think of is fetchmail. What other ones > Neil> behave like this? It is a good point, though. > > MH, exmh (I think), pine, mulberry, netscape (may default to > "mail" rather than "localhost"). > > You wouldn't run fetchmail in a configuration like I described. Are you sure of the above facts? IIRC _any_ UNIX MUA will use the sendmail command line interface (/usr/sbin/sendmail) for outgoing mail. Only MTAs talk SMTP. This means that you just have to _install_ sendmail (or some lookalike) for the machine to be able to *send* mail. You have to _run_ sendmail (or some lookalike) to be able to _receive_ mail from the network. That's why almost no machine in a network needs sendmail_enable set to YES. And for the ones to need it (mail relays and local servers) you're better aware of this fact when installing the OS. To talk about those clients: pine reads from a local (or network fs mounted) mailbox and delivers to the sendmail command via stdin. I would expect MH and exmh to do the same. The same holds for mail(1) and elm. And mutt. And any traditional UNIX mail user agent. fetchmail delivers by default to a SMTP server. But it could be run as well in MDA mode -- although I never used it this way. And nobody said the SMTP machine fetchmail delivers to had to be a user's workstation. This wouldn't be a good idea at all. Usually you fetch from an external machine (e.g. your ISP) and shove the mail to your LAN's mail server. Netscape is an exception here. It does have some MUA functionality, but it tries to be a MTA, too. It's not a "normal" program in this respect. It doesn't focus on one aspect to make this one right. It's the bloat usually found in other areas. I wouldn't confuse this clumsy thing with an easy to use and capable mail frontend. :) I even dare to say its wide spread use comes mostly from all the (former?) Windows users who want some clickable frontend not yet realizing that specialized programs are way more capable since they only have this one goal in mind. virtually yours 82D1 9B9C 01DC 4FB4 D7B4 61BE 3F49 4F77 72DE DA76 Gerhard Sittig true | mail -s "get gpg key" Gerhard.Sittig@gmx.net -- If you don't understand or are scared by any of the above ask your parents or an adult to help you. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message