[Mimedefang] What is 'mimedefang-ip-key'

[David F. Skoll]

On Fri, 13 Sep 2002, Rajesh Bhandari wrote:

> I just installed MD 2.21, and noticed a file called  mimedefang-ip-key
> in my /etc/mail directory.  What is this file for?  I don't remember
> seeing this with previous versions.

It's an experimental feature to preserve the identity of the orignal
relay reliably.

An external MD box can add a special header with that key to a mail
message, and an internal MD box can extract the real relay's IP address.
Or, if you re-send a message, instead of appearing to come from 127.0.0.1,
MD will preserve the identity of the original relay.

See mimedefang.pl.in, line 1200 for an example of how mimedefang.pl
preserves the original relay address, and line 740 of mimedefang.c for
the code which picks out the original IP address.

The contents of the file should be kept confidential.  It's not a big
problem if it leaks out (you just generate another one), but you don't
want to advertise it more than necessary.

Regards,

David.