[H-GEN] Re: QL: Relaying outside mail through my server.

[Peter Relph]

Steve, 

BushNet has also been afflicted with a similar situation over the past few
days, maybe weeks. 

Our Sys Admin has put in place a temporary routing block on the network that
the perpetrator is dialing into, whilst contacting the network
administrators to get them to stop the offender.

Whilst not having a technical knowledge of the mechanism, apparently it is a
weakness in the sendmail program that permits this sort of abuse. 

peter relph

At 18:15 5/11/97 +1000, Steve Pinel wrote:
>Talking of mail servers, I just looked through the mail log for the past
>couple of days, and noticed that one mail message has been sent by someone
>not within the school to someone else not within the school.
>
>Now, we have a dialup connection, with a dynamic IP address assigned each
>time we connect (several times a day).  The mail server, which is a Mac
>running EIMS,  is really only intended as an internal affair, but is able
>to pass mail out to the real world (our oficial email server is
>administered by our ISP).  It is outside the firewall (Vivom Gateway), and
>so is accessible to anyone on the internet, but with IP addresses changing
>every few hours and no DNS entries, I find it hard to believe that this
>could have happened without some effort on someones behalf.
>
>Firstly, can anyone tell me why this might have happened?
>
>Secondly, what sort of security threat does this pose?
>
>Thirdly, what can I do (technically and legally) to stop this happening again?
>
>Thanks very much
>
>Steve 'a bit concerned' Pinel
>
>
>
>

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