Re: MAJORDOMO ABORT (mj_majordomo)

> Hi,
> I have started getting the below error:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> MAJORDOMO ABORT (mj_majordomo)!!
> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> :
> not replying to MAILER-DAEMON to avoid mail loop.
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Can someone please help me what is the problem?

Normal error here:
  I run lists with hundreds of people, most of whom are Very Far
  from being computer professionals, most of them run Microsoft on
  their PCs, periodically their email archives get harvested by
  viruses. Over years spammers learn mail list & majordomo addresses.

The message tells you majordomo saved you from a mail explosion - This Time.
  Imagine if your majordomo@ got in a dialogue with some other
  domain's mailer daemon or other mail list robot: each would react
  to the other, appending progresively more noise.  How would such
  a deadly embrace start ? Could be a malicious set up or accident,
  but normally a spammer by chance faking one address to the other
  address.

BUT majordomo default config failed to save me 2 days ago:
  The server of @suedbau-ing.de
	(not on any of my lists, & didnt know it existed before)
  flooded my majordomo@berklix, unfortunately not from eg
	[email protected]
  but from 
	[email protected] 
  what @suedbau-ing.de did wrong, others can & will & we should be
  prepared for, The flood I got was painful.

I've since added postmaster to majordomo_dont_reply in majordomo.cf,
see a trimmed patch below for comment of others on list.
(OK line numbers trimmed/mangled, & not All lines needed,
it's for comment not patching blind-folded :-)

] *** majordomo-1.94.5.cf.generic	Mon Aug  3 18:25:01 2009
] --- majordomo.cf	Tue Aug  4 14:27:24 2009
] ***************
] *** 278,283 ****
] --- 288,295 ----
]   
]   # taboo headers to catch
]   #
]   $global_taboo_headers = <<'END';
]   /^subject: ndn: /i
]   /^subject:\s*RCPT:/i
] ***************
] *** 290,297 ****
] --- 302,329 ----
]   /^subject:\s*unable to deliver mail\b/i
]   /^subject:\s.*\baway from my mail\b/i
]   /^subject:\s*Autoreply/i
] + /^content\-type: multipart\/report; report\-type=delivery\-status;/i
] + /^deferred:/i
] + /^subject:\s*=\?koi8\-r\/i
] + /^subject:\s*Autoreply/i
] + /^subject:\s*Benachrichtung/i
] + /^subject:\s*Subject:\s*no\-reply/i
] + /^to:\s*undisclosed\-recipients/i
] + /charset=\"koi8\-r\"/i
] + /policy rejection\- please try later\./i
] + /recipient address rejected/i
]   END
]   
]   # Taboo body contents to catch and forward to the approval address
]   #
]   # For example:
] ***************
] *** 301,315 ****
]   #   END
]   # NOTE! Using ' instead of " in the next line is VERY IMPORTANT!!!
]   #
]   $global_taboo_body = <<'END';
]   END
]   
]   # Majordomo will not send replies to addresses which match this.
]   # The match is done case-insensitively.
] ! $majordomo_dont_reply = '(mailer-daemon|uucp|listserv|majordomo|listproc)\@';
]   
]   1;
]   # $Header: /sources/cvsrepos/majordomo/sample.cf,v 1.34 1997/08/27 15:00:31 cwilson Exp $
]   
] --- 333,405 ----
]   #   END
]   # NOTE! Using ' instead of " in the next line is VERY IMPORTANT!!!
]   #
] + # Pre 2009_08_03 was empty global_taboo_body,
] + # I think this list of taboos will only protect lists
] + # & not prevent private recursive flood between local majordomo 
] + # & remote robot (JJLATER vi -c/global_taboo_headers resend ).
]   $global_taboo_body = <<'END';
] + /dies\s*ist\s*eine\s*automatisch\s*erstellte\s*benachrichtigung/i
] + /this\s*is\s*an\s*automaticaly\s*generated/i
]   END
]   
]   # Majordomo will not send replies to addresses which match this.
]   # The match is done case-insensitively.
] ! # $majordomo_dont_reply = '(mailer-daemon|uucp|listserv|majordomo|listproc)\@';
] ! # Should - in mailer-daemon be escaped ? JJLATER Read code & decide.
] ! $majordomo_dont_reply = '(_dhcp|_pflogd|abuse|admin|apache|avahi|bind|bin|copyright|cups|cyrus|daemon|dhcpd|dumper|exmh-bug-master|faxmanager|faxmaster|fetchmail|ftp-admin|ftp-bugs|ftpmaster|ftp|games|haldaemon|hostmaster|kmem|listproc|listserv|mailer-daemon|mailman|mailnull|majordomo-h|majordomo-owner|majordomo1|majordomo2|majordomo3|majordomo|majordom|man|messagebus|msgs|nagios|newsmaster|news|nobody|null-notify|operator|owner-majordomo|polkit|pop|postmaster|proxy|release|root|saned|smmsp|squid|sshd|subscribe|system|toor|tty|usenet|uucp|webmaster|www-test|www|xten)\@';
] ! # 2009_08_03 jhs added postmaster to majordomo_dont_reply
] ! #	Although 
] ! #		- in theory there's no reason why a postmaster
] ! #		  should not subscribe a list,
] ! #		- a postmaster might want to legitimately
] ! #		  test majordomo with eg "help" or "lists"
] ! #	It's too dangerous. eg majordomo got into a deadly embrace 
] ! #	as [email protected] was not a human but a robot.
] ! # 	I also blocked some other likely addresses (all system addreses from
] ! #	/etc/passwd & /etc/mail/aliases) spammers might fake & trigger a
] ! #	storm, eg 'subscribe' (which I then saw reported next morning as:
] ! #	  MAJORDOMO ABORT (mj_majordomo)!!
] ! #	  [email protected]: not replying to subscribe to avoid mail loop.
]   
] + # I jhs@ suspect next line "^1;" may be an error ?  
] + # But it is also in majordomo-1.94.5.cf.generic (from FreeBSD-7.1).
]   1;
]   # $Header: /sources/cvsrepos/majordomo/sample.cf,v 1.34 1997/08/27 15:00:31 cwilson Exp $

Cheers,
Julian
-- 
Julian Stacey: BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultants Munich http://berklix.com
  Mail ASCII plain text not HTML & Base64.      http://asciiribbon.org
  Virused Microsoft PCs cause spam.             http://berklix.com/free/