MMDF problems

[jasboy]

Like a few people here we have had problems with mmdf creating massive amounts of msg files in /usr/spool/mmdf/lock/home . I’ve used TA103329 from SCO’s website and it cleared all the msg files but 3 days later we have had over 10,000 + created again. When we get these massive amounts of files it seems to create the root.lock file, however removing this file does not seem to help much, the messages just fill up our mailbox. I’ve opened quite a few of the msg.* files in the /addr/ directory and this is an example of what we get:

1042443973m0
adfa@aaa.com
- m smtp "hanmail.net" bj038@hanmail.net


there are also other emails, like postmaster@korea.com and so on. Most are Korean web sites, and I know no one here has emailed any of these domains. If this was a windows system I would think it was a virus or worm, but unix isn’t as prone to these sort of things.

Anyway, I’m a newby to SCO unix and I’m not sure where to go next. We are running SCO 5.0.5, 500 MHz, 256MB RAM.

Any help would great.

Thank you,

Jasboy


P.S. I would have used a keyword search, but it has been down.

 

[Annihilannic]

It looks to me like a spammer or two are attempting to use your system to relay mail. Have a look at

http://www.sendmail.org/antispam.html

for some suggestions to prevent relaying. Annihilannic.

 

[jasboy]

Thanks Annihilannic, I will give this a look see.

jasboy

 

[Qman61832]

As a side note, hanmail.net (among a few others) try to relay off of our mail server as well (Win2K server with EMWAC IMS)...

 

[Qman61832]

I accidentally started a new thread with this information, sorry for the double posting...here is what I have so far on my situation (MMDF is causing sever lag on our SCO server...)

It appears that the system is trying to deliver mail constantly, and it cannot be delivered. This results in a notification of failed mail, which also cannot be delivered. It seems that there is an endless loop of undeliverable mail, resulting in more undeliverable mail.

Followed instructions from

http://stage.caldera.com/cgi-bin/ssl_reference?103329

(command: find . -type f -print | xargs rm) for cleaning the queue files, got quite a few that said "rm: ./addr/msg. non-existent"
Cleaning process caused even worse lag, had to cancel it to allow other users to do their work. I may need to run this later when no one is on the system to allow it to complete...
Ran the "clnlock" utility, that completed ok.
Checked the /usr/spool/mmdf/tmp file, it is empty
Checked /usr/spool/locks folder - it is also empty
Checked /usr/spool/mail directory, there are entries for all the usernames on the system with lock icons on them with the exception of root, root.bak, and root.bak.bak. (I assume this is because I am logged in as root)
The questions I have at this point are:
-How can I prevent the system from retrying undelivered messages?
-How can I get rid of currently undelivered messages or at least check to see if they are still in the system?

 

[patw]

Try running down the possibilities in TA# 112461, especially the possibility that some process has changed the ownership and/or perms of users home directories, or the perms on MMDF itself are incorrect. Pat Welch, UBB Computer Services
SCO Authorized Partner
Unix/Linux/Windows/Hardware Sales/Support
(209) 745-1401 Fax: (413) 714-2833