Okay, a quick look at rfc-ignorant.org shows that Charter is
deliberately violating RFC 1891. So much for that. :)
However, this problem took me months to uncover because it wasn't
obvious that Charter was violating the RFC because (in my capacity as a
user) I never knew that challenges were being bounced. Here's a test I
ran today, to show what I'm talking about.
# Procmail log
procmail: Executing "/usr/local/tmda-1.1.8/bin/tmda-filter"
procmail: [571] Tue Jun 3 19:38:41 2008
procmail: Assigning "LASTFOLDER=/usr/local/tmda-1.1.8/bin/tmda-filter"
From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Jun 3 19:38:39 2008
Subject: Test again
Folder: /usr/local/tmda-1.1.8/bin/tmda-filter
# TMDA in.log
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:38:41 -0700
From: Private Citizen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subj: Test again
Actn: CONFIRM action_incoming
(1549)
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:38:41 -0700
From: Private Citizen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subj: Test again
Actn: CONFIRM pending 1212547120.583
(1549)
# Postfix log
Jun 3 19:38:41 penguin postfix/pickup[491]: D576F37CAB: uid=1000 from=<>
Jun 3 19:38:41 penguin postfix/cleanup[569]: D576F37CAB:
message-id=<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Jun 3 19:38:41 penguin postfix/qmgr[3104]: D576F37CAB: from=<>, size=3325,
nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Jun 3 19:38:43 penguin postfix/smtp[588]: D576F37CAB: to=<[EMAIL
PROTECTED]>, relay=smtp.charter.net[209.225.8.224]:25, delay=1.7,
delays=0.02/0.02/1.2/0.46, dsn=5.0.0, status=bounced (host
smtp.charter.net[209.225.8.224] said: 550 relaying mail to hotmail.com is not
allowed (in reply to RCPT TO command))
Jun 3 19:38:43 penguin postfix/qmgr[3104]: D576F37CAB: removed
The point I'm making is that the bounces generated by Charter aren't
identifiable to the user as such, because no bounce message is delivered
back to the user or (as far as I can tell) back to tmda. This is
probably desirable behavior in *most* cases, in that you don't want to
know every time a forged address is bounced, but it gives no indication
at all that the challenges aren't even being sent.
My guess is that when TMDA injects a message with a null envelope,
postfix doesn't know to return the bounce from Charter to me. And so,
the problem goes undiscovered until some clever postmaster notices
(hopefully faster than I did) that their ISP is flouting the RFCs.
Whatever the reason, I guess the question is whether it's possible for
TMDA to detect this condition, or whether the very nature of sending
challenges with null envelopes makes this impossible.
--
"Oh, look: rocks!"
-- Doctor Who, "Destiny of the Daleks"
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