ACCESS(5) ACCESS(5)
NAME
access - Postfix SMTP server access table
SYNOPSIS
postmap /etc/postfix/access
postmap -q "string" /etc/postfix/access
postmap -q - /etc/postfix/access <inputfile
DESCRIPTION
This document describes access control on remote SMTP client information: host names, network
addresses, and envelope sender or recipient addresses; it is implemented by the Postfix SMTP server.
See header_checks(5) or body_checks(5) for access control on the content of email messages.
Normally, the access(5) table is specified as a text file that serves as input to the postmap(1) com-
mand. The result, an indexed file in dbm or db format, is used for fast searching by the mail sys-tem. system.
tem. Execute the command "postmap /etc/postfix/access" to rebuild an indexed file after changing the
corresponding text file.
When the table is provided via other means such as NIS, LDAP or SQL, the same lookups are done as for
ordinary indexed files.
Alternatively, the table can be provided as a regular-expression map where patterns are given as reg-ular regular
ular expressions, or lookups can be directed to TCP-based server. In those cases, the lookups are
done in a slightly different way as described below under "REGULAR EXPRESSION TABLES" or "TCP-BASED
TABLES".
CASE FOLDING
The search string is folded to lowercase before database lookup. As of Postfix 2.3, the search string
is not case folded with database types such as regexp: or pcre: whose lookup fields can match both
upper and lower case.
TABLE FORMAT
The input format for the postmap(1) command is as follows:
pattern action
When pattern matches a mail address, domain or host address, perform the corresponding action.
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 logical line starts with non-whitespace text. A line that starts with whitespace continues a
logical line.
EMAIL ADDRESS PATTERNS
With lookups from indexed files such as DB or DBM, or from networked tables such as NIS, LDAP or SQL,
patterns are tried in the order as listed below:
user@domain
Matches the specified mail address.
domain.tld
Matches domain.tld as the domain part of an email address.
The pattern domain.tld also matches subdomains, but only when the string smtpd_access_maps is
listed in the Postfix parent_domain_matches_subdomains configuration setting (note that this
is the default for some versions of Postfix). Otherwise, specify .domain.tld (note the ini-tial initial
tial dot) in order to match subdomains.
user@ Matches all mail addresses with the specified user part.
Note: lookup of the null sender address is not possible with some types of lookup table. By default,
Postfix uses <> as the lookup key for such addresses. The value is specified with the
smtpd_null_access_lookup_key parameter in the Postfix main.cf file.
EMAIL ADDRESS EXTENSION
When a mail address localpart contains the optional recipient delimiter (e.g., user+foo@domain), the
lookup order becomes: user+foo@domain, user@domain, domain, user+foo@, and user@.
HOST NAME/ADDRESS PATTERNS
With lookups from indexed files such as DB or DBM, or from networked tables such as NIS, LDAP or SQL,
the following lookup patterns are examined in the order as listed:
domain.tld
Matches domain.tld.
The pattern domain.tld also matches subdomains, but only when the string smtpd_access_maps is
listed in the Postfix parent_domain_matches_subdomains configuration setting. Otherwise,
specify .domain.tld (note the initial dot) in order to match subdomains.
net.work.addr.ess
net.work.addr
net.work
net Matches the specified IPv4 host address or subnetwork. An IPv4 host address is a sequence of
four decimal octets separated by ".".
Subnetworks are matched by repeatedly truncating the last ".octet" from the remote IPv4 host
address string until a match is found in the access table, or until further truncation is not
possible.
NOTE 1: The access map lookup key must be in canonical form: do not specify unnecessary null
characters, and do not enclose network address information with "[]" characters.
NOTE 2: use the cidr lookup table type to specify network/netmask patterns. See cidr_table(5)
for details.
net:work:addr:ess
net:work:addr
net:work
net Matches the specified IPv6 host address or subnetwork. An IPv6 host address is a sequence of
three to eight hexadecimal octet pairs separated by ":".
Subnetworks are matched by repeatedly truncating the last ":octetpair" from the remote IPv6
host address string until a match is found in the access table, or until further truncation is
not possible.
NOTE 1: the truncation and comparison are done with the string representation of the IPv6 host
address. Thus, not all the ":" subnetworks will be tried.
NOTE 2: The access map lookup key must be in canonical form: do not specify unnecessary null
characters, and do not enclose network address information with "[]" characters.
NOTE 3: use the cidr lookup table type to specify network/netmask patterns. See cidr_table(5)
for details.
IPv6 support is available in Postfix 2.2 and later.
ACCEPT ACTIONS
OK Accept the address etc. that matches the pattern.
all-numerical
An all-numerical result is treated as OK. This format is generated by address-based relay
authorization schemes such as pop-before-smtp.
REJECT ACTIONS
Postfix version 2.3 and later support enhanced status codes as defined in RFC 3463. When no code is
specified at the beginning of the text below, Postfix inserts a default enhanced status code of
"5.7.1" in the case of reject actions, and "4.7.1" in the case of defer actions. See "ENHANCED STATUS
CODES" below.
4NN text
5NN text
Reject the address etc. that matches the pattern, and respond with the numerical three-digit
code and text. 4NN means "try again later", while 5NN means "do not try again".
The reply code "421" causes Postfix to disconnect immediately (Postfix version 2.3 and later).
REJECT optional text...
Reject the address etc. that matches the pattern. Reply with $reject_code optional text...
when the optional text is specified, otherwise reply with a generic error response message.
DEFER_IF_REJECT optional text...
Defer the request if some later restriction would result in a REJECT action. Reply with "450
4.7.1 optional text... when the optional text is specified, otherwise reply with a generic
error response message.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later.
DEFER_IF_PERMIT optional text...
Defer the request if some later restriction would result in a an explicit or implicit PERMIT
action. Reply with "450 4.7.1 optional text... when the optional text is specified, other-wise otherwise
wise reply with a generic error response message.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later.
OTHER ACTIONS
restriction...
Apply the named UCE restriction(s) (permit, reject, reject_unauth_destination, and so on).
DISCARD optional text...
Claim successful delivery and silently discard the message. Log the optional text if speci-fied, specified,
fied, otherwise log a generic message.
Note: this action currently affects all recipients of the message. To discard only one recip-ient recipient
ient without discarding the entire message, use the transport(5) table to direct mail to the
discard(8) service.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.
DUNNO Pretend that the lookup key was not found. This prevents Postfix from trying substrings of the
lookup key (such as a subdomain name, or a network address subnetwork).
This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.
FILTER transport:destination
After the message is queued, send the entire message through the specified external content
filter. The transport:destination syntax is described in the transport(5) manual page. More
information about external content filters is in the Postfix FILTER_README file.
Note: this action overrides the content_filter setting, and currently affects all recipients
of the message.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.
HOLD optional text...
Place the message on the hold queue, where it will sit until someone either deletes it or
releases it for delivery. Log the optional text if specified, otherwise log a generic mes-sage. message.
sage.
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: use "postsuper -r" to release mail that was kept on hold for a significant fraction of
$maximal_queue_lifetime or $bounce_queue_lifetime, or longer. Use "postsuper -H" only for mail
that will not expire within a few delivery attempts.
Note: this action currently affects all recipients of the message.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.
PREPEND headername: headervalue
Prepend the specified message header to the message. When more than one PREPEND action exe-cutes, executes,
cutes, the first prepended header appears before the second etc. prepended header.
Note: this action must execute before the message content is received; it cannot execute in
the context of smtpd_end_of_data_restrictions.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later.
REDIRECT user@domain
After the message is queued, send the message to the specified address instead of the intended
recipient(s).
Note: this action overrides the FILTER action, and currently affects all recipients of the
message.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later.
WARN optional text...
Log a warning with the optional text, together with client information and if available, with
helo, sender, recipient and protocol information.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later.
ENHANCED STATUS CODES
Postfix version 2.3 and later support enhanced status codes as defined in RFC 3463. When an enhanced
status code is specified in an access table, it is subject to modification. The following transforma-tions transformations
tions are needed when the same access table is used for client, helo, sender, or recipient access
restrictions; they happen regardless of whether Postfix replies to a MAIL FROM, RCPT TO or other SMTP
command.
When a sender address matches a REJECT action, the Postfix SMTP server will transform a recip-ient recipient
ient DSN status (e.g., 4.1.1-4.1.6) into the corresponding sender DSN status, and vice versa.
When non-address information matches a REJECT action (such as the HELO command argument or the
client hostname/address), the Postfix SMTP server will transform a sender or recipient DSN
status into a generic non-address DSN status (e.g., 4.0.0).
REGULAR EXPRESSION TABLES
This section describes how the table lookups change when the table is given in the form of regular
expressions. For a description of regular expression lookup table syntax, see regexp_table(5) or
pcre_table(5).
Each pattern is a regular expression that is applied to the entire string being looked up. Depending
on the application, that string is an entire client hostname, an entire client IP address, or an
entire mail address. Thus, no parent domain or parent network search is done, user@domain mail
addresses are not broken up into their user@ and domain constituent parts, nor is user+foo broken up
into user and foo.
Patterns are applied in the order as specified in the table, until a pattern is found that matches
the search string.
Actions are the same as with indexed file lookups, with the additional feature that parenthesized
substrings from the pattern can be interpolated as $1, $2 and so on.
TCP-BASED TABLES
This section describes how the table lookups change when lookups are directed to a TCP-based server.
For a description of the TCP client/server lookup protocol, see tcp_table(5). This feature is not
available up to and including Postfix version 2.4.
Each lookup operation uses the entire query string once. Depending on the application, that string
is an entire client hostname, an entire client IP address, or an entire mail address. Thus, no par-ent parent
ent domain or parent network search is done, user@domain mail addresses are not broken up into their
user@ and domain constituent parts, nor is user+foo broken up into user and foo.
Actions are the same as with indexed file lookups.
EXAMPLE
The following example uses an indexed file, so that the order of table entries does not matter. The
example permits access by the client at address 1.2.3.4 but rejects all other clients in 1.2.3.0/24.
Instead of hash lookup tables, some systems use dbm. Use the command "postconf -m" to find out what
lookup tables Postfix supports on your system.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_client_restrictions =
check_client_access hash:/etc/postfix/access
/etc/postfix/access:
1.2.3 REJECT
1.2.3.4 OK
Execute the command "postmap /etc/postfix/access" after editing the file.
BUGS
The table format does not understand quoting conventions.
SEE ALSO
postmap(1), Postfix lookup table manager
smtpd(8), SMTP server
postconf(5), configuration parameters
transport(5), transport:nexthop syntax
README FILES
Use "postconf readme_directory" or "postconf html_directory" to locate this information.
SMTPD_ACCESS_README, built-in SMTP server access control
DATABASE_README, Postfix lookup table overview
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
ACCESS(5)
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