[Pkg-exim4-users] root emails - "From:" - no details of server.domain.com displayed

[Maarten Bezemer]

Hi,

On Thu, 13 Jan 2011, John Mchugh wrote:

> We have a shed load of Debian servers running exim4 and mailing management info (ie cron-apt completions) to head office MS Exchange (Sorry!)
> The issue is that the root emails are displayed, in outlook as:
> From                Subject
> root                xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> To find out which server has mailed we have to open the message and find the info displayed as:
> root [root at server.domain-name.com]
> a bit of a pain! - my management would like to see the following:
>
> From                                     Subject
> root at server.domain-name.com              xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> which it does fine for none priv users.

Although the Subject line includes hostnames for quite a number of 
cron-triggered emails, there is an easy way to get this done.

The From-line displayed in outlook is just the contents of the "From: " 
header line. If, for non-priv users, this displays an email address, that 
probably means those users haven't configured their own names. (Which, in 
an MS Exchange setup, could be either by policy or by the user's 
ignorance.)

When sending emails from cron (or command line or whatever) that do not 
include a "From: " header, it is added by the mail software (in this 
case, Exim) based on the GECOS information of the user.
This is the 5th field of the line defining the user in /etc/passwd. For 
root, this simply says "root" on default Debian installs.

Using "chfn" you could for example change the description of the root 
account into something like "Root @ computername". That value will then be 
displayed in outlook.


> *************************************************************************
>
> This email and its attachments are intended for the above named only and 
> may be confidential.

Cut that legal crap.
If the company policy is to allow sending confidential information by 
non-encrypted and not even digitally signed email, then it should 
seriously reconsider that policy, not add silly disclaimers.


-- 
Maarten