Re: Now who does cause this ???

Steve VanDevender (stevev@efn.org)
Sun, 6 Jun 1999 13:51:52 -0700 (PDT)


Matthew Kirkwood writes:
> On Sun, 6 Jun 1999, Riley Williams wrote:
> > > Somebody (likely in Sweden) is resending all their incoming
> > > email to some gateway address, but the writers of that gateway
> > > are truly morons, and they send the error reports to WRONG
> > > address.
>
> > The problem is that the software doing the bouncing CORRECTLY replies
> > to the FROM address on the email it's bouncing, as that's the only
> > originating address it has available.
>
> Wrong. It is (AFAIK) never correct for an MTA to use a From: address
> for any purpose. That's why majordomo inserts a "Return-path:
> owner-linux-kernel-outgoing@vger" to every mail, and any MTA ignoring that
> is broken.

To be pedantic, the Return-path: header contains the envelope
sender address (the argument of the "MAIL FROM:" SMTP command)
and is inserted by a receiving MTA for informational purposes on
final delivery, not by an originating mailer. Bounces are
supposed to go to the envelope sender -- but that doesn't mean an
MTA is supposed to use the Return-path; header to get that
address.

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