Notification Email - Undisclosed Recipients

Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2012 6:54 am

I am getting returned mail from one of my forums related to any user(s) that opt to receive notifications via email of new posts, etc.

Below is the pertinent return message:

Code:




The original message was received at Tue, 24 Jul 2012 20:14:24 -0500 from apache@localhost





   ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----


Undisclosed-recipients:;





   ----- Transcript of session follows -----


553 5.1.3 Undisclosed-recipients:;... List:; syntax illegal for recipient addresses





Reporting-MTA: dns; xxxxxxxxx.com


Arrival-Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 20:14:24 -0500





Final-Recipient: RFC822; "553 List:; syntax illegal for recipient addresses"@xxxxxxxx.com


X-Actual-Recipient: rfc822; "553 List:; syntax illegal for recipient addresses"@xxxxxxxx.com


Action: failed


Status: 5.1.3


Last-Attempt-Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 20:14:24 -0500





Topic Reply Notification - T-Bird 14.0.eml


Subject: Topic Reply Notification - T-Bird 14.0


From: admin@my_domain.net


Date:


7/24/2012 8:14 PM


To: Undisclosed-recipients:;

Ok, so how do I correct this. Where did "Undisclosed-recipients" all of a sudden come from?

Cheers

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 10:39 am

Basic question is why is the notification email being sent

To: Undisclosed Recipients

Instead of to the poster's email - the mystery continues.

Site Admin Joined: Aug 22, 2007 Posts: 1775

You found the Undisclosed Recipients in two files...

modules/Forums/includes/emailer.php:

Code:

         $empty_to_header = ($to == '') ? TRUE : FALSE;


         $to = ($to == '') ? (($board_config['sendmail_fix']) ? ' ' : 'Undisclosed-recipients:;') : $to;


                        $result = @mail($to, $this->subject, preg_replace("#(?<!\r)\n#s", "\n", $this->msg), $this->extra_headers);

modules/Forums/includes/smtp.php:

Code:

$mail_to = (trim($mail_to) == '') ? 'Undisclosed-recipients:;' : trim($mail_to);

Could it be you have activated: "Use SMTP Server for email" and have entered an incorrect address or no smtp datas?

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 11:57 am

Yes, I use my smtp server - the only thing that works. The address's are correct as the recipient in the forum gets the notification and I get the error message regarding "undisclosed recipients".

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 1:58 pm

Quote:

Basic question is why is the notification email being sent

To: Undisclosed Recipients

Instead of to the poster's email - the mystery continues.

dad7732 To answer your basic question:
Because the phpBB team decided to use this for security reasons long time ago.

If you do a Google search you will find possible a solution only for you and at your own risk.
In general there is nothing wrong with "Undisclosed recipients". Wink

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 3:34 pm

Nothing wrong until I keep getting several dozens of error emails daily in addition to all the spams sent to "undisclosed recipients". Cool

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 4:35 pm

dad7732, for the two instances of "Undisclosed-recipients:;" that neralex listed change it to "noreply@yourdomain.com;" You can use what ever email you want, but I would use a nonexistent one so that it does not get filled with these emails. The problem is that your "mail server" is being picky about not have a "real" address in the To: field.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 5:07 pm

What I think the problem is that I recently installed an SPF record on that particular MX server. Only change that was made and THAT would possibly explain things. Suspecting that I have an idea what to change those two instances to. Will post back with results.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 5:18 pm

Doesn't matter what I change it to - valid OR invalid address or any text for that matter, I still get:

Final-Recipient: RFC822; myaddress@myserver:;
X-Actual-Recipient: rfc822; "553 List:; syntax illegal for recipient addresses"@myserver
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.3
Last-Attempt-Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 18:15:26 -0500

Going to take a bit more investigation.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 5:23 pm

Removed 'undisclosed-recipients:;' leaving just ' ' and after some extensive testing, the user gets the notification and I don't get the error message email. So far so good.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 5:58 pm

Apparently the problem is on my end on my server. I replaced emailer.php and smtp.php with the latest versions and there are no "Undisclosed-Recipients" lines and I still get the error, just took an extra few seconds to get the error message. And apparently it only happens on my replies and not those of other posters. I still suspect the SPF record. So, if it's only my replies that are at issue then I can live with it.

Incidently installing an SPF record cut down tremendously on incoming spam, especially when a spammer spoofs my own email address in the From: field.