Bug 696369

Summary:	Postfix defaults regress Sendmail defaults, best common practices
Product:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7	Reporter:	Bryan J Smith <brsmith>
Component:	doc-System_Administrators_Guide	Assignee:	Stephen Wadeley <swadeley>
Status:	CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE	QA Contact:	ecs-bugs
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	low
Version:	7.0	CC:	awaizman, jskarvad, rbiba
Target Milestone:	rc	Keywords:	Documentation
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2015-03-05 08:21:41 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:

Description Bryan J Smith 2011-04-13 22:32:58 UTC

Description of problem:

Several Postfix defaults regress Sendmail defaults and best common practices (BCP).  These include:  
- disable_vrfy_command = no  (default equivalent in RHEL5 Sendmail was "yes")
- allow_percent_hack = yes   (BCP: this should be set to "no" by default)
- smtpd_helo_required = no   (BCP: this should be set to "yes" by default)

Understand several of these have been carried forward from Postfix in RHEL5, but some were different in RHEL5 for Sendmail, and are considered BCP for today's systems.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
postfix-2.6.6-2.el6  (RHEL 6.1 Beta)

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Install postfix
2.  postconf | grep (for keyword)
3.
  
Actual results:
disable_vrfy_command = no
allow_percent_hack = yes
smtpd_helo_required = no

Expected results:
disable_vrfy_command = yes
allow_percent_hack = no
smtpd_helo_required = yes

Additional info:
Understand RHEL6 is now GA, but these defaults, especially the first option -- which matches RHEL5 Sendmail defaults, should be considered changed mid-release before more adoption.

Comment 2 RHEL Program Management 2011-04-13 22:57:44 UTC

This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for
inclusion in the current release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Because the affected component is not scheduled to be updated
in the current release, Red Hat is unfortunately unable to
address this request at this time. Red Hat invites you to
ask your support representative to propose this request, if
appropriate and relevant, in the next release of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. If you would like it considered as an
exception in the current release, please ask your support
representative.

Comment 3 RHEL Program Management 2011-07-05 23:45:26 UTC

This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for
inclusion in the current release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Because the affected component is not scheduled to be updated
in the current release, Red Hat is unfortunately unable to
address this request at this time. Red Hat invites you to
ask your support representative to propose this request, if
appropriate and relevant, in the next release of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. If you would like it considered as an
exception in the current release, please ask your support
representative.

Comment 5 Jaroslav Škarvada 2014-12-01 16:57:11 UTC

It's too late to change the defaults, nor to diverge from the upstream.

But it would be useful to have all these BCP tunings documented. Reassigning to RHEL-7 doc to have this tracked. I think RHEL-7 doc is the most appropriate place. Or maybe the KB article would be enough. I am initially assigning it to the Installation guide, but there may be more appropriate guide. I let it on decision of doc team.

Comment 7 Radek Bíba 2014-12-02 07:22:00 UTC

Moving to the sysadmin guide because it deals with mail servers.

Comment 8 Stephen Wadeley 2014-12-02 08:39:49 UTC

Hello

Looks like the best place for this would be the section called:
 The Default Postfix Installation


https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/s1-email-mta.html#s2-email-mta-postfix

Comment 12 Stephen Wadeley 2015-03-05 08:21:41 UTC

Hello


Changes are now published and can be seen here:


https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/s1-email-mta.html#s3-email-mta-postfix-upgrading_from_a_previous_release



Thank you