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Re: cannot start: unable to read controls

To: qmail@list.cr.yp.to
Subject: Re: cannot start: unable to read controls
From: Daniel Mahoney <dan@catfolks.net>
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:15:40 -0500
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the "*.pem" files are used by different programs. under my patch, the "servercert.pem" file is only used by the qmail-smtpd program, which runs as qmaild, which is a member of the "nofiles" group, which means that "servercert.pem" needs to be owned by root, with the nofiles group, and have permissions 0640... and the "clientcert.pem" file is only used by qmail-remote, which runs as qmailr, which is a member of the "qmail" group, so it should be owned by root, group qmail, permissions 0640. which means that "clientcert.pem" should NOT be a symlink to "servercert.pem". (this is one of the most common errors that "qmailrocks" users make, because the brain-dead qmailrocks scripts set things up this way.)

i would suggest you review which programs actually use these files, figure out what userid they run under, and set their permissions appropriately. and remember that these ".pem" files contain the encryption keys which are used to secure the mail coming into or out of your server- if they fall into the hands of the wrong process, you could potentially lose the benefit of encrypting your connections.

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Excellent! Thank you very much for that. I don't know why I hadn't looked at the permissions on the .pem files. I'm in process of checking those items now.

Dan

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