Postfix/TLS - Testing
Testing the package is a little bit difficult, as the communication
is encrypted, so that you cannot "imitate" the conversation just by
telnetting to the SMTP port. You also cannot capture the packets
(well, you can, but if everything is working as advertised, it
won't help you :-).
Included debugging aids
As all of the messages generated by Postfix are sent to the syslog
facility, debugging must be done using your normal system logfiles.
Postfix/TLS supports the logging levels 0 (very quiet) up to 4 (a
dump of the complete conversation, not recommended).
As a first step set smpt[d]_tls_loglevel=2
and
watch the logfile. Typically you will have problems with the access
to the keys or certificates, so you will find error messages
here.
You can always try to send an email to
postfix_tls-bounce@serv01.aet.tu-cottbus.de with TLS enabled
at your side and watch, what is going to happen :-)
While testing the interoperability with ZMailer we learned, that
an incorrect certificate type (must be server for the server :-)
can lead to connection failures without clear symptoms. It helps to
use Netscape 4.5x as a client and carefully study the message boxes
and certificate information. I have yet to find out how to identify
this problem from postfix to print a suitable warning to the
logfile. Hopefully it will be possible without changes in the
OpenSSL library.
Platforms
- Development Platform:
- OS: HP-UX 10.20
- OS: Linux 2.x (SuSE Linux)
- Reported Success:
- OS: Solaris 2.5 - Walcir Fontanini
<walcir@densis.fee.unicamp.br>
- Test Client:
- Software: Netscape 4.5x, Netscape 4.6x, Netscape 4.7x
- OS: HP-UX 10.20, Linux 2.x, Win95
Please don't comment on the stability of Netscape, especially not
on HP-UX...
Interoperability
Besides support by generic wrapper solutions, there exist specially
crafted extensions for other MTAs:
- Qmail There is an OpenSource patch available,
extending the Qmail [QMAIL] MTA
to support RFC2487, written by Frederik Vermeulen [QMAILTLS]. Sending and receiving is
working from both sides.
Testing: send mail to ping@linux.student.kuleuven.ac.be
(will send back complete email including headers).
- Zmailer The author/maintainer of ZMailer,
Matti Aarnio, has incorporated both server and client side TLS
support [ZMAILER].
Zmailer -> Postfix works fine,
Postfix -> Zmailer does not work, since ESMTP is not recognized
(problem reported).
Testing: send mail to autoanswer@mea.tmt.tele.fi (will
send back headers).
- Sendmail The commercial verson of sendmail
supports client and server TLS, both sides interoperating with
Postfix/TLS. As of sendmail-8.11, TLS is also included with the
opensource version [SENDMAIL].
Testing: send mail to bounce@esmtp.org (will bounce
error message including old headers).
- Postfix Can send emails to itself :-).
Testing: send mail to
postfix_tls-bounce@serv01.aet.tu-cottbus.de (will bounce back,
includes old headers).
Other reports are welcome.
Known bugs
This software is just at the beginning, so please be patient. By
now I have these points: