Cybersecurity

I'm trying to get my Solaris 7 sendmail server to allow external clients to send to external recipients. I know this has to do with relaying, but I'm not sure how unsafe I have to get to allow this. I simply need for users to login from any domain and be allowed to send mail via SMTP to any recipient. This version of sendmail was the one included with Solaris 7, so I'm not sure which version it actually is. I know I probably want promiscuous_relay enabled, but can I do that without recompiling? I tried using wildcards in the /etc/mail/relay-domains and /etc/mail/access files, but no luck (of course I used 'makemap' on access file and restarted sendmail for the file changes). Can anyone suggest something? Thanks.

You sound like you know what it means attempting to do what you want to do. You server will become a mail-relay for spammers (if connected to the Internet).

Why do you want to do this?

FYI - to get the version of Sendmail
% /usr/lib/sendmail -d0.1 -bt < /dev/null

Thanks for that tip, it's version 8.9.3. I want to do this because it's not as easy (or safe, I know) to use another SMTP service or to connect with the VPN to get a private IP to send from. I may end up shooting this entire idea down (obviously not mine). I've encountered alot of documents about spammers and blacklists. I'd still like to know how to do it, though.

As far as the version you are running - upgrade. Go to Sendmail and get the latest.

As far as sending email from a system, you don't have to have Sendmail running. It only has to be on the system - you can send mail out. If this is a company then it more than likely has security policies about not having sendmail (or others mailers) running on anything but corporate approved. Pointing your server to the known mailhost is simple enough. Opening up a mail relay would make many folks on the Internet unhappy with your company.

This machine is THE mailhost, so I won't say which domain. I know it is unreasonable and would be begging for abuse by opening that up. There are obviously safe SMTP relays out there, so how can I have one, too? People do allow SMTP relay to valid user accounts regardless of the domain or IP address and don't get nailed with spammers. That's what I want.