NAME

VERSION

USAGE

$ policyd-spf (Start using installed config file)

$ policyd-spf -h (Display usage message)

$ policyd-spf /usr/local/etc/policyd-spf/policyd-spf.conf (Config file name to use)

Configuration options are described in the sample configuration file provided with the package (policyd-spf.conf.commented) and in policyd-spf.conf(5). The provided setup.py installs an uncommented configuration file in /usr/local/etc/policyd-spf/.

Additionally, whitelisting certain IP addresses or IP addresses used by listed domains from SPF checks is supported. Skipping SPF checks for local submission or trusted relays is also provided. The sample configuration file and policyd-spf.conf(5) shows the format to use.

OTHER DOCUMENTATION

See man 5 policyd-spf.conf for configuration file information.

man 5 policyd-spf.peruser provides documentation on setting up and using different configuration options on a per user (mail reciepient) basis.

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Each time a Postfix SMTP server process is started it connects to the policy service socket and Postfix runs one instance of this Python script. By default, a Postfix SMTP server process terminates after 100 seconds of idle time, or after serving 100 clients. Thus, the cost of starting this Python script is smoothed over time

The default policy_time_limit is 1000 seconds. This may be too short for some SMTP transactions to complete. As recommended in SMTPD_POLICY_README, this should be extended to 3600 seconds. To do so, set "policy_time_limit = 3600" in /usr/local/etc/postfix/main.cf.

Messages that get a Fail SPF result will be rejected. Messages that get a Permerror are, by default, treated as if they had no SPF record. Messages that get a Temperror result are, by default, treated as if they had no SPF record, but can (and probably should) be deferred if otherwise permitted. Messages that get other SPF results (Pass, None, Neutral, Softfail) will have the SPF Received header prepended. Note: Spamasassisn 3.2 and follow will use this header for spam scoring so there is no need to configure a separate SPF check in these Spamassassin versions. See Spamassassin documentation for details.

Default Mail From rejection/deferal criteria are, by design, conservative. Default HELO check actions are to reject mail with other than Pass/None. HELO records are much simpler than Mail From records and rejecting based on HELO checking does not present a false positive risk. These settings are a matter of local policy and should be adjusted to meet the requirements of site administrators. See policyd-spf.conf(5) for configuration file details.

LOGGING

TESTING THE POLICY DAEMON

To test the policy daemon by hand, execute:

policyd-spf

Each query is a bunch of attributes. Order does not matter, and the daemon uses only a few of all the attributes shown below:

request=smtpd_access_policy protocol_state=RCPT protocol_name=SMTP helo_name=some.domain.tld queue_id=8045F2AB23 instance=12345.6789 sender=foo@bar.tld recipient=bar@foo.tld client_address=1.2.3.4 client_name=another.domain.tld [empty line]

The policy daemon will answer in the same style, with an attribute list followed by a empty line:

action=dunno [empty line]

POSTFIX INTEGRATION

policyd-spf unix - n n - 0 spawn user=nobody argv=/usr/local/bin/policyd-spf

NOTE: Check the path to both the installed Python 3 interpreter and policyd-spf. These vary from system to system. To use non-default settings, you must also add the config file (see above and policyd-spf.conf(5) for details). If you run other services with user nobody, create a dedicated user for this policy server and use that instead. Python and Python 3 versions prior to 3.3 are not supported.

2. Configure the Postfix policy service in /usr/local/etc/postfix/main.cf:

smtpd_recipient_restrictions = ... reject_unauth_destination check_policy_service unix:private/policyd-spf ... policyd-spf_time_limit = 3600

policyd-spf_time_limit is an instance of transport_time_limit. See SMTPD_POLICY_README or postconf (5) transport_time_limit for details.

NOTE: Specify check_policy_service AFTER reject_unauth_destination or else your system can become an open relay.

3. Reload Postfix.

PERFORMANCE CONSIDERATIONS

Long waits for DNS answers can cause performance bottlenecks. There are two primary controls, policyd-spf.conf(5) has details, provided to affect DNS timing. Lookup_Time controls the overall time, in seconds, allowed for an SPF check to complete. Whitelist_Lookup_Time controls the amount of time allowed for individual DNS lookups associated with name based whitelist options.

Lookup_Time defaults to the 20 second value recommended by RFC 7208. This is a conservative recommendation and often a lower limit works quite well. Delays associated with whitelisting related DNS lookups can be avoided by using IP based options instead.

A shorter time increases the likelihood that the result for some messages will be a temporary error rather then the actual correct result. To avoid some reported interoperability issues with some greylisting implementations, TempError_Defer defaults to False. With TempError_Defer set to True, such TempError messages will be deferred and when retried, the responses should be in the local DNS resolver's cache.

The combination of a low Lookup_Time setting, TempError_Defer = True, and no DNS name based whitelisting will maximize SPF checking throughput with only mimimal delays. Consider a value of Lookup_Time = 5 seconds and monitor the system mail logs. If TempError results are rare or non-existent, the value can be lowered. If such result are common (more than 1% of mail), then the value should be raised.

SEE ALSO

AUTHORS

This man-page was created by Scott Kitterman <scott@kitterman.com>. It is licensed under the same terms as the program.