4

I'm hosting a portion of a website for a client, and sending e-mails from their primary domain from a server in my network. Proper SPF records are in place for this, but SPF checking is still failing.

SPF seems to be checking the Return-Path: header, which is currently showing up as serverusername@serverhostname. The server hostname uses an internal tld and means nothing to the outside world. The mail sending script is written in perl, and I tried passing a different return path value to sendmail via the -f flag, and also by explicitly adding a Return-Path: header. Both methods have resulted in no change to the Return-Path:.

How can I change the Return-Path: in sendmail to the from e-mail address of the e-mail I'm sending so SPF passes?

Update:

Here are the contents of /etc/mail:

access
access.db
domaintable
domaintable.db
helpfile
local-host-names
mailertable
mailertable.db
Makefile
sendmail.cf
sendmail.cf.orig
sendmail.cf.rpmnew
sendmail.mc
submit.cf
submit.mc
trusted-users
virtusertable
virtusertable.db
Improve this question
8
  • Do you know which mail relaying server you are using? Qmail, postfix, something else?
    – WerkkreW
    Apr 9, 2012 at 18:51
  • This box only has sendmail setup.
    – noctorum
    Apr 9, 2012 at 18:59
  • There has to be an underlying mail server, which needs to be configured.
    – WerkkreW
    Apr 9, 2012 at 19:00
  • There are no init scripts for postfix, qmail, exim etc., but mail is being sent out successfully with just sendmail. I'll update my main question with a list of the configuration files available in /etc/mail.
    – noctorum
    Apr 9, 2012 at 19:03
  • That's really odd, maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about! Take a look in sendmail.cf to see if the configuration for the sender domains, return paths, etc are in there.
    – WerkkreW
    Apr 9, 2012 at 19:08

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

From the bat book (page 1165):

The Return-Path: header is intended to show the envelope address of the real sender as opposed to the sender used for replying (the From: and Reply-To: headers). In posting Usenet news, for example, the Return-Path: shows “news” and the From: shows the address of the posting user. But in general, Return-Path: should never be used for replying to mail. It is intended to be used solely for notification of delivery errors.

You cannot change Return-Path: the way you try. Have your script submit emails to your mail server via SMTP. Or you can try FEATURE(masquerade_envelope)

Improve this answer
1
  • This was resolved using masquerading.
    – noctorum
    Apr 10, 2012 at 16:05

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .