[Mailman-Users] Ghost Moderator Requests

[Mark Sapiro]

Dennis Putnam wrote:
> At 06:10 PM 1/21/2008, you wrote:
> 
>> Somewhere, there is another test/backup/incompletely deleted/whatever
>> Mailman installation that is sending these. Check the Received: headers
>> of the message to see at which server it originates and then
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean by "at which server it originates". Are you
> talking about the server that is sending the mailman mail (i.e. the
> mailman server) or the server that sent the email(s) that require
> attention? If the latter, there is no way to tell since the message is
> from the mailman server.


I mean the Mailman server that sent the 'n <listname> moderator requests
waiting' notice, which may not be the same physical box as the Mailman
server that supports your active list..

The chain of Received: headers in the notification you receive will
identify every server MTA through which the mail passed on it's way to
you. I am suggesting that these messages might originate from a Mailman
installation on a different box and the earliest Received: headers in
the chain might help you identify the box.

For example, here are the Received: headers (and a few other
interspersed headers) from the message to which I'm replying:

Received: from smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl (smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl [194.109.24.33])
 by sbh16.songbird.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2A80E690092
 for <mark at msapiro.net>; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:35:37 -0800 (PST)
Received: from bag.python.org (bag.python.org [194.109.207.14])
 by smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id m0NNZR42028054
 for <mark at msapiro.net>; Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:35:37 +0100 (CET)
 (envelope-from mailman-users-bounces+mark=msapiro.net at python.org)
Received: from bag.python.org (bag [127.0.0.1])
 by bag.python.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDB0B1E402F
 for <mark at msapiro.net>; Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:35:36 +0100 (CET)
X-Original-To: mailman-users at python.org
Delivered-To: mailman-users at bag.python.org
Received: from bag.python.org (bag [127.0.0.1])
 by bag.python.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8DA021E400F
 for <mailman-users at python.org>; Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:35:01 +0100 (CET)
X-Spam-Status: OK 0.000, No
Received: from bag (HELO bag.python.org) (127.0.0.1)
 by bag.python.org with SMTP; 24 Jan 2008 00:35:01 +0100
Received: from fmailhost03.isp.att.net (fmailhost03.isp.att.net
 [204.127.217.103]) by bag.python.org (Postfix) with ESMTP
 for <mailman-users at python.org>; Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:34:58 +0100 (CET)
Received: from dap001 (adsl-34-248-212.asm.bellsouth.net[67.34.248.212])
 by isp.att.net (frfwmhc03) with SMTP
 id <20080123233455H0300id6ioe>; Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:34:57 +0000

These tell us that the message originated from your machine at
adsl-34-248-212.asm.bellsouth.net (IP 67.34.248.212). A similar analysis
of the Received: headers of the notice you received will indicate from
which physical box the message originated.


>>  find / -name config.pck -print
> 
> /var/lib/mailman/lists/mailman/mailman.pck
> /var/lib/mailman/lists/<my real list>/<my real list>.pck


Assuming you actually mean the results of the above find were

/var/lib/mailman/lists/mailman/config.pck
/var/lib/mailman/lists/<my real list>/config.pck

and nothing else, this is additional evidence that the notices originate
from a different box.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <mark at msapiro.net>        The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan