On 7/20/06, Jay Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Marcus Ilgner wrote:
> could maybe someone point me to some documentation on the tarpit
> functionality in the Courier MTA?
I don't think there's much on the website...  The mailing list archives
and the C code (courier/module.esmtp/couriesmtpd.c around line 65 is a
start) will have to suffice...

>  What options there are possibly to set,
There aren't any options to be set (though I'd love to have the ability
to configure the timeout lengths and have a whitelist... hint, hint...).

You could play with the hard coded INIT_TEERGRUBE and MAX_TEERGRUBE
definitions and recompile...  Setting INIT_TEERGRUBE to 0 should
effectively disable the tarpit.  Bumping MAX_TEERGRUBE to high would
likely result in ESMTP connections timing out (possibly from a legit
connection that just has a bunch of old email addresses...)
>  how it determines the address to tarpit etc.
As I understand it, it's not based on address, it's based on the server
response.  For example, if I connect and start sending bad commands, I
start getting tarpitted.  If I send a rcpt to: and Courier responds that
it's non-existant, I start getting tarpitted...  The timeout length
continues until it hits MAX_TEERGRUBE.  These settings are per session
as I understand, so that if the same IP connects later (or even at the
same time), one connections bad behavior will not cause the other to be
tarpitted.
>  Up to now the
> existence of that functionality was the only thing that I could find
> ;)
>
Yep, this does need a little more documentation.  Especially since it
can really break things like Backup MX servers (yes I know they're a bad
idea nowadays anyways but that doesn't mean they're going away)...

Jay

Many thanks for this extensive answer! I'll have a look at the source, then.
I concur with your wish to have some options to the tarpit, though.

Best regards
  Marcus
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