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"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> HEADER_CHECKS(5) HEADER_CHECKS(5) NAME header_checks - Postfix built-in header/body inspection SYNOPSIS header_checks = pcre:/usr/local/etc/postfix/header_checks mime_header_checks = pcre:/usr/local/etc/postfix/mime_header_checks nested_header_checks = pcre:/usr/local/etc/postfix/nested_header_checks body_checks = pcre:/usr/local/etc/postfix/body_checks postmap -fq "string" pcre:/usr/local/etc/postfix/filename postmap -fq - pcre:/usr/local/etc/postfix/filename <inputfile DESCRIPTION Postfix provides a simple built-in content inspection mechanism that examines incoming mail one message header or one message body line at a time. Each input is compared against a list of patterns, and when a match is found the corresponding action is executed. This feature is imple- mented by the Postfix cleanup(8) server. For examples, see the EXAMPLES section at the end of this manual page. Postfix header or body_checks are designed to stop a flood of mail from worms or viruses; they do not decode attach- ments, and they do not unzip archives. See the documents referenced below in the README FILES section if you need more sophisticated content analysis. Postfix supports four built-in content inspection classes: header_checks These are applied to initial message headers (except for the headers that are processed with mime_header_checks). mime_header_checks (default: $header_checks) These are applied to MIME related message headers only. This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later. nested_header_checks (default: $header_checks) These are applied to message headers of attached email messages (except for the headers that are processed with mime_header_checks). This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later. body_checks These are applied to all other content, including multi-part message boundaries. With Postfix versions before 2.0, all content after the initial message headers is treated as body con- tent. Note: message headers are examined one logical header at a time, even when a message header spans multiple lines. Body lines are always examined one line at a time. TABLE FORMAT This document assumes that header and body_checks rules are specified in the form of Postfix regular expression lookup tables. Usually the best performance is obtained with pcre (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) tables, but the slower regexp (POSIX regular expressions) support is more widely available. Use the command postconf -m to find out what lookup table types your Postfix system sup- ports. The general format of Postfix regular expression tables is given below. For a discussion of specific pattern or flags syntax, see pcre_table(5) or regexp_table(5), respectively. /pattern/flags action When pattern matches the input string, execute the corresponding action. See below for a list of pos- sible actions. !/pattern/flags action When pattern does not match the input string, exe- cute the corresponding action. if /pattern/flags endif Match the input string against the patterns between if and endif, if and only if the input string also matches pattern. The if..endif can nest. Note: do not prepend whitespace to patterns inside if..endif. if !/pattern/flags endif Match the input string against the patterns between if and endif, if and only if the input string does not match pattern. The if..endif can nest. blank lines and comments Empty lines and whitespace-only lines are ignored, as are lines whose first non-whitespace character is a `#'. multi-line text A pattern/action line starts with non-whitespace text. A line that starts with whitespace continues a logical line. TABLE SEARCH ORDER For each line of message input, the patterns are applied in the order as specified in the table. When a pattern is found that matches the input line, the corresponding action is executed and then the next input line is inspected. TEXT SUBSTITUTION Substitution of substrings from the matched expression into the action string is possible using the conventional Perl syntax ($1, $2, etc.). The macros in the result string may need to be written as ${n} or $(n) if they aren't followed by whitespace. Note: since negated patterns (those preceded by !) return a result when the expression does not match, substitutions are not available for negated patterns. ACTIONS Action names are case insensitive. They are shown in upper case for consistency with other Postfix documentation. DISCARD optional text... Claim successful delivery and silently discard the message. Log the optional text if specified, oth- erwise log a generic message. Note: this action disables further header or body_checks inspection of the current message and affects all recipients. This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later. DUNNO Pretend that the input line did not match any pat- tern, and inspect the next input line. This action can be used to shorten the table search. For backwards compatibility reasons, Postfix also accepts OK but it is (and always has been) treated as DUNNO. This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later. FILTER transport:destination Write a content filter request to the queue file and inspect the next input line. After the com- plete message is received it will be sent through the specified external content filter. More infor- mation about external content filters is in the Postfix FILTER_README file. Note: this action overrides the main.cf con- tent_filter setting, and affects all recipients of the message. In the case that multiple FILTER actions fire, only the last one is executed. This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later. HOLD optional text... Arrange for the message to be placed on the hold queue, and inspect the next input line. The mes- sage remains on hold until someone either deletes it or releases it for delivery. Log the optional text if specified, otherwise log a generic message. Mail that is placed on hold can be examined with the postcat(1) command, and can be destroyed or released with the postsuper(1) command. Note: this action affects all recipients of the message. This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later. IGNORE Delete the current line from the input and inspect the next input line. PREPEND text... Prepend one line with the specified text and inspect the next input line. Note: the prepended text is output immediately before the input that triggered the PREPEND action. A body action cannot prepend a message header. Note: this action cannot be used to prepend multi- line text. This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later. REDIRECT user@domain Write a message redirection request to the queue file and inspect the next input line. After the message is queued, it will be sent to the specified address instead of the intended recipient(s). Note: this action overrides the FILTER action, and affects all recipients of the message. If multiple REDIRECT actions fire, only the last one is exe- cuted. This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later. REJECT optional text... Reject the entire message. Reply with optional text... when the optional text is specified, other- wise reply with a generic error message. Note: this action disables further header or body_checks inspection of the current message and affects all recipients. WARN optional text... Log a warning with the optional text... (or log a generic message) and inspect the next input line. This action is useful for debugging and for testing a pattern before applying more drastic actions. BUGS Many people overlook the main limitations of header and body_checks rules. These rules operate on one logical message header or one body line at a time, and a decision made for one line is not carried over to the next line. If text in the message body is encoded (RFC 2045) then the rules have to specified for the encoded form. Likewise, when message headers are encoded (RFC 2047) then the rules need to be specified for the encoded form. Message headers added by the cleanup(8) daemon itself are excluded from inspection. Examples of such message headers are From:, To:, Message-ID:, Date:. Message headers deleted by the cleanup(8) daemon will be examined before they are deleted. Examples are: Bcc:, Con- tent-Length:, Return-Path:. CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS body_checks Lookup tables with content filter rules for message body lines. These filters see one physical line at a time, in chunks of at most $line_length_limit bytes. body_checks_size_limit The amount of content per message body segment (attachment) that is subjected to $body_checks fil- tering. header_checks mime_header_checks (default: $header_checks) nested_header_checks (default: $header_checks) Lookup tables with content filter rules for message header lines: respectively, these are applied to the initial message headers (not including MIME headers), to the MIME headers anywhere in the mes- sage, and to the initial headers of attached mes- sages. Note: these filters see one logical message header at a time, even when a message header spans multi- ple lines. Message headers that are longer than $header_size_limit characters are truncated. disable_mime_input_processing While receiving mail, give no special treatment to MIME related message headers; all text after the initial message headers is considered to be part of the message body. This means that header_checks is applied to all the initial message headers, and that body_checks is applied to the remainder of the message. Note: when used in this manner, body_checks will process a multi-line message header one line at a time. EXAMPLES Header pattern to block attachments with bad file name extensions. /usr/local/etc/postfix/main.cf: header_checks = regexp:/usr/local/etc/postfix/header_checks /usr/local/etc/postfix/header_checks: /^content-(type|disposition):.*name[[:space:]]*=.*\.(exe|vbs)/ REJECT Bad attachment file name extension: $2 Body pattern to stop a specific HTML browser vulnerability exploit. /usr/local/etc/postfix/main.cf: body_checks = regexp:/usr/local/etc/postfix/body_checks /usr/local/etc/postfix/body_checks: /^<iframe src=(3D)?cid:.* height=(3D)?0 width=(3D)?0>$/ REJECT IFRAME vulnerability exploit SEE ALSO cleanup(8), canonicalize and enqueue Postfix message pcre_table(5), format of PCRE lookup tables regexp_table(5), format of POSIX regular expression tables postconf(1), Postfix configuration utility postmap(1), Postfix lookup table management postsuper(1), Postfix janitor postcat(1), show Postfix queue file contents RFC 2045, base64 and quoted-printable encoding rules RFC 2047, message header encoding for non-ASCII text README FILES DATABASE_README, Postfix lookup table overview CONTENT_INSPECTION_README, Postfix content inspection overview BUILTIN_FILTER_README, Postfix built-in content inspection BACKSCATTER_README, blocking returned forged mail LICENSE The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software. AUTHOR(S) Wietse Venema IBM T.J. Watson Research P.O. Box 704 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA HEADER_CHECKS(5)