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Christopher Adams writes:
> I include one of the messages below. Any idea why this is being generated
> to root mail and how to stop it?
On a third perusal of the headers, I think I can nail down the problem.
> Return-Receipt-To: WARE Barbara <Barbara.WARE@state.or.us>
That is the culprit partially responsible for causing the loop; the
Reply-To is the other half of the equation, though in this case is probably
not the worst problem. If the Reply-To is not pointing at your mailing
list, it is actually preventing a worse problem at your own expense.
Watch.
Message is sent to the mailing list. Barbara gets a copy, because she is
on the list. Barbara's vacation program sees the message and sends out an
automatically generated reply. Because it is a reply, honoring the
Reply-To header is considered proper. This is how "ordinary" mailing list
mail loops start, as automatic replies get sent to the list itself,
generating more automatic replies.
This kind of mail loop is easy to prevent: never put the list's mailbox in
Reply-To headers.
This is where things start getting interesting. When the automated
response is received (by the Reply-To mailbox), a receipt is sent back to
Barbara. This causes the vacation program to kick in and automatically
generate a reply that is sent to the original Reply-To mailbox. Another
mail loop is born.
This kind of mail loop is difficult to prevent, as the real fault is not on
your end of things. What I would do is unsubscribe this person to prevent
exacerbation of the problm. Inform the postmaster at the offending site as
to exactly what is going on. Add the offending user to the local anti-spam
ruleset to prevent successful delivery of her crap, breaking the
return-receipt chain.
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--
Rich Pieri <rich.pieri@prescienttech.com> / If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke,
Sysmonster, Unix Wrangler / get away immediately. Seek shelter
Prescient Technologies, Inc. / and cover head.
I speak for myself, not PTI or SWEC /
References:
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