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POSTSCREEN(8) System Manager's Manual POSTSCREEN(8)

NAME

postscreen - Postfix zombie blocker

SYNOPSIS

postscreen [generic Postfix daemon options]

DESCRIPTION


The Postfix postscreen(8) server provides additional protection against mail server overload. One postscreen(8) process handles multiple inbound SMTP connections, and decides which clients may talk to a Postfix SMTP server process. By keeping spambots away, postscreen(8) leaves more SMTP server processes available for legitimate clients, and delays the onset of server overload conditions.

This program should not be used on SMTP ports that receive mail from end-user clients (MUAs). In a typical deployment, postscreen(8) handles the MX service on TCP port 25, while MUA clients submit mail via the submission service on TCP port 587 which requires client authentication. Alternatively, a site could set up a dedicated, non-postscreen, "port 25" server that provides submission service and client authentication, but no MX service.

postscreen(8) maintains a temporary whitelist for clients that have passed a number of tests. When an SMTP client IP address is whitelisted, postscreen(8) hands off the connection immediately to a Postfix SMTP server process. This minimizes the overhead for legitimate mail.

By default, postscreen(8) logs statistics and hands off every connection to a Postfix SMTP server process, while excluding clients in mynetworks from all tests (primarily, to avoid problems with non-standard SMTP implementations in network appliances). This mode is useful for non-destructive testing.

In a typical production setting, postscreen(8) is configured to reject mail from clients that fail one or more tests. postscreen(8) logs rejected mail with the client address, helo, sender and recipient information.

postscreen(8) is not an SMTP proxy; this is intentional. The purpose is to keep spambots away from Postfix SMTP server processes, while minimizing overhead for legitimate traffic.

SECURITY



The postscreen(8) server is moderately security-sensitive.
    It talks to untrusted clients on the network. The process can be run
    chrooted at fixed low privilege.






STANDARDS


RFC 821 (SMTP protocol)
RFC 1123 (Host requirements)
RFC 1652 (8bit-MIME transport)
RFC 1869 (SMTP service extensions)
RFC 1870 (Message Size Declaration)
RFC 1985 (ETRN command)
RFC 2034 (SMTP Enhanced Status Codes)
RFC 2821 (SMTP protocol)
Not: RFC 2920 (SMTP Pipelining)
RFC 3207 (STARTTLS command)
RFC 3461 (SMTP DSN Extension)
RFC 3463 (Enhanced Status Codes)
RFC 5321 (SMTP protocol, including multi-line 220 banners)






DIAGNOSTICS




Problems and transactions are logged to syslogd(8).






BUGS




The postscreen(8) built-in SMTP protocol engine currently
    does not announce support for AUTH, XCLIENT or XFORWARD. If you need to make
    these services available on port 25, then do not enable the optional
    "after 220 server greeting" tests, and do not use DNSBLs that
    reject traffic from dial-up and residential networks.


The optional "after 220 server greeting" tests involve
    postscreen(8)'s built-in SMTP protocol engine. When these tests
    succeed, postscreen(8) adds the client to the temporary whitelist,
    but it cannot not hand off the "live" connection to a Postfix SMTP
    server process in the middle of a session. Instead, postscreen(8)
    defers attempts to deliver mail with a 4XX status, and waits for the client
    to disconnect. When the client connects again, postscreen(8) will
    allow the client to talk to a Postfix SMTP server process (provided that the
    whitelist status has not expired). postscreen(8) mitigates the impact
    of this limitation by giving the "after 220 server greeting" tests
    a long expiration time.






CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS




Changes to main.cf are not picked up automatically, as
    postscreen(8) processes may run for several hours. Use the command
    "postfix reload" after a configuration change.


The text below provides only a parameter summary. See
    postconf(5) for more details including examples.


NOTE: Some postscreen(8) parameters implement
    stress-dependent behavior. This is supported only when the default parameter
    value is stress-dependent (that is, it looks like ${stress?X}${stress:Y}, or
    it is the $name of an smtpd parameter with a stress-dependent
    default). Other parameters always evaluate as if the stress parameter
    value is the empty string.






COMPATIBILITY CONTROLS





  

  
A mechanism to transform commands from remote SMTP clients.

  

  
Lookup tables, indexed by the remote SMTP client address, with case
      insensitive lists of EHLO keywords (pipelining, starttls, auth, etc.) that
      the postscreen(8) server will not send in the EHLO response to a
      remote SMTP client.

  

  
A case insensitive list of EHLO keywords (pipelining, starttls, auth,
      etc.) that the postscreen(8) server will not send in the EHLO
      response to a remote SMTP client.








TROUBLE SHOOTING CONTROLS





  

  
List of characters that are permitted in postscreen_reject_footer
      attribute expansions.

  
  
Optional information that is appended after a 4XX or 5XX
      postscreen(8) server response.

  

  
Safety net to keep mail queued that would otherwise be returned to the
      sender.








BEFORE-POSTSCREEN PROXY AGENT




Available in Postfix version 2.10 and later:



  

  
The name of the proxy protocol used by an optional before-postscreen proxy
      agent.

  

  
The time limit for the proxy protocol specified with the
      postscreen_upstream_proxy_protocol parameter.








PERMANENT WHITE/BLACKLIST TEST




This test is executed immediately after a remote SMTP client
    connects. If a client is permanently whitelisted, the client will be handed
    off immediately to a Postfix SMTP server process.



  

  
Permanent white/blacklist for remote SMTP client IP addresses.

  

  
The action that postscreen(8) takes when a remote SMTP client is
      permanently blacklisted with the postscreen_access_list parameter.








MAIL EXCHANGER POLICY TESTS




When postscreen(8) is configured to monitor all primary and
    backup MX addresses, it can refuse to whitelist clients that connect to a
    backup MX address only. For small sites, this requires configuring primary
    and backup MX addresses on the same MTA. Larger sites would have to share
    the postscreen(8) cache between primary and backup MTAs, which would
    introduce a common point of failure.



  

  
A list of local postscreen(8) server IP addresses where a
      non-whitelisted remote SMTP client can obtain postscreen(8)'s
      temporary whitelist status.








BEFORE-GREETING TESTS




These tests are executed before the remote SMTP client receives
    the "220 servername" greeting. If no tests remain after the
    successful completion of this phase, the client will be handed off
    immediately to a Postfix SMTP server process.



  

  
The name of the dnsblog(8) service entry in master.cf.

  

  
The action that postscreen(8) takes when a remote SMTP client's
      combined DNSBL score is equal to or greater than a threshold (as defined
      with the postscreen_dnsbl_sites and postscreen_dnsbl_threshold
      parameters).

  

  
A mapping from actual DNSBL domain name which includes a secret password,
      to the DNSBL domain name that postscreen will reply with when it rejects
      mail.

  

  
Optional list of DNS white/blacklist domains, filters and weight
    factors.

  

  
The inclusive lower bound for blocking a remote SMTP client, based on its
      combined DNSBL score as defined with the postscreen_dnsbl_sites
    parameter.

  

  
The action that postscreen(8) takes when a remote SMTP client
      speaks before its turn within the time specified with the
      postscreen_greet_wait parameter.

  

  
The text in the optional "220-text..." server
      response that postscreen(8) sends ahead of the real Postfix SMTP
      server's "220 text..." response, in an attempt to confuse bad
      SMTP clients so that they speak before their turn (pre-greet).

  

  
The amount of time that postscreen(8) will wait for an SMTP client
      to send a command before its turn, and for DNS blocklist lookup results to
      arrive (default: up to 2 seconds under stress, up to 6 seconds
    otherwise).

  

  
The internal service that postscreen(8) hands off allowed
      connections to.








AFTER-GREETING TESTS




These tests are executed after the remote SMTP client receives the
    "220 servername" greeting. If a client passes all tests during
    this phase, it will receive a 4XX response to RCPT TO commands until the
    client hangs up. After this, the client will be allowed to talk directly to
    a Postfix SMTP server process.



  

  
The action that postscreen(8) takes when a remote SMTP client sends
      a bare newline character, that is, a newline not preceded by carriage
      return.

  

  
Enable "bare newline" SMTP protocol tests in the
      postscreen(8) server.

  

  
Disable the SMTP VRFY command in the postscreen(8) daemon.

  

  
List of commands that the postscreen(8) server considers in
      violation of the SMTP protocol.

  

  
Require that a remote SMTP client sends HELO or EHLO before commencing a
      MAIL transaction.

  

  
The action that postscreen(8) takes when a remote SMTP client sends
      non-SMTP commands as specified with the postscreen_forbidden_commands
      parameter.

  

  
Enable "non-SMTP command" tests in the postscreen(8)
      server.

  

  
The action that postscreen(8) takes when a remote SMTP client sends
      multiple commands instead of sending one command and waiting for the
      server to respond.

  

  
Enable "pipelining" SMTP protocol tests in the
      postscreen(8) server.








CACHE CONTROLS





  

  
The amount of time between postscreen(8) cache cleanup runs.

  

  
Persistent storage for the postscreen(8) server decisions.

  

  
The amount of time that postscreen(8) will cache an expired
      temporary whitelist entry before it is removed.

  

  
The amount of time that postscreen(8) will use the result from a
      successful "bare newline" SMTP protocol test.

  

  
The amount of time that postscreen(8) will use the result from a
      successful DNS blocklist test.

  

  
The amount of time that postscreen(8) will use the result from a
      successful PREGREET test.

  

  
The amount of time that postscreen(8) will use the result from a
      successful "non_smtp_command" SMTP protocol test.

  

  
The amount of time that postscreen(8) will use the result from a
      successful "pipelining" SMTP protocol test.








RESOURCE CONTROLS





  

  
Upon input, long lines are chopped up into pieces of at most this length;
      upon delivery, long lines are reconstructed.

  

  
How many simultaneous connections any remote SMTP client is allowed to
      have with the postscreen(8) daemon.

  

  
The limit on the total number of commands per SMTP session for
      postscreen(8)'s built-in SMTP protocol engine.

  

  
The time limit to read an entire command line with postscreen(8)'s
      built-in SMTP protocol engine.

  

  
The number of clients that can be waiting for service from a real Postfix
      SMTP server process.

  

  
The number of non-whitelisted clients that can be waiting for a decision
      whether they will receive service from a real Postfix SMTP server
    process.

  

  
How much time a postscreen(8) process may take to respond to a
      remote SMTP client command or to perform a cache operation before it is
      terminated by a built-in watchdog timer.








STARTTLS CONTROLS





  

  
The SMTP TLS security level for the postscreen(8) server; when a
      non-empty value is specified, this overrides the obsolete parameters
      postscreen_use_tls and postscreen_enforce_tls.

  

  
The name of the tlsproxy(8) service entry in master.cf.








OBSOLETE STARTTLS SUPPORT CONTROLS




These parameters are supported for compatibility with
    smtpd(8) legacy parameters.



  

  
Opportunistic TLS: announce STARTTLS support to remote SMTP clients, but
      do not require that clients use TLS encryption.

  

  
Mandatory TLS: announce STARTTLS support to remote SMTP clients, and
      require that clients use TLS encryption.








MISCELLANEOUS CONTROLS





  

  
The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf configuration
      files.

  

  
The maximal number of digits after the decimal point when logging
      sub-second delay values.

  

  
The location of all postfix administrative commands.

  

  
The maximum amount of time that an idle Postfix daemon process waits for
      an incoming connection before terminating voluntarily.

  

  
The process ID of a Postfix command or daemon process.

  

  
The process name of a Postfix command or daemon process.

  

  
The syslog facility of Postfix logging.

  

  
The mail system name that is prepended to the process name in syslog
      records, so that "smtpd" becomes, for example,
      "postfix/smtpd".








SEE ALSO


smtpd(8), Postfix SMTP server
tlsproxy(8), Postfix TLS proxy server
dnsblog(8), DNS black/whitelist logger
syslogd(8), system logging






README FILES




Use "postconf readme_directory" or
    "postconf html_directory" to locate this
    information.


POSTSCREEN_README, Postfix Postscreen Howto






LICENSE




The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this
  software.






HISTORY




This service was introduced with Postfix version 2.8.


Many ideas in postscreen(8) were explored in earlier work
    by Michael Tokarev, in OpenBSD spamd, and in MailChannels Traffic
  Control.






AUTHOR(S)


Wietse Venema
IBM T.J. Watson Research
P.O. Box 704
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA