Issue Spam Issue - Need Assistance

[PleskyStuff]

Hi there,

We've been hit with spammers and having a hard time finding the source. I have followed the guidelines for identifying potential PHP scripts and no scripts are found to be malicious. We were running qmail but we moved to postfix. The problem started with qmail with spam coming from localhost. Here are the main.cf configs:

smtpd_sender_restrictions = check_sender_access hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/blacklists, permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_authenticated_sender_login_mismatch, reject_unknown_sender_domain, reject_non_fqdn_sender, reject_sender_login_mismatch, permit
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_unauth_destination, reject_unlisted_recipient, reject_invalid_hostname, reject_non_fqdn_hostname, reject_non_fqdn_sender, reject_non_fqdn_recipient, reject_unknown_sender_domain, reject_unknown_recipient_domain, reject_unauth_pipelining, permit
non_smtpd_milters =
smtpd_milters = , inet:127.0.0.1:12768
smtpd_tls_mandatory_protocols = TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2
smtpd_tls_protocols = TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2
smtpd_tls_ciphers = medium
smtpd_tls_mandatory_ciphers = medium
tls_medium_cipherlist = HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5
virtual_mailbox_domains = $virtual_mailbox_maps, hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/virtual_domains
virtual_alias_maps = $virtual_maps, hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/virtual
virtual_mailbox_maps = , hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/vmailbox
transport_maps = , hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/transport
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/postfix_default.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = $smtpd_tls_cert_file
smtpd_tls_security_level = may
smtpd_use_tls = yes
smtp_tls_security_level = may
smtp_use_tls = no
smtpd_timeout = 3600s
smtpd_proxy_timeout = 3600s
disable_vrfy_command = yes
smtp_send_xforward_command = yes
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
virtual_mailbox_base = /var/qmail/mailnames
virtual_uid_maps = static:110
virtual_gid_maps = static:31
sender_dependent_default_transport_maps = hash:/var/spool/postfix/plesk/sdd_transport_maps
virtual_transport = plesk_virtual
plesk_virtual_destination_recipient_limit = 1
mailman_destination_recipient_limit = 1
mailbox_size_limit = 0
virtual_mailbox_limit = 0
smtpd_helo_required = yes
smtpd_helo_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, reject_non_fqdn_hostname, reject_invalid_hostname, permit
smtpd_reject_unlisted_sender = yes
smtpd_error_sleep_time = 1s
smtpd_soft_error_limit = 10
smtpd_hard_error_limit = 20
disable_vrfy_command = yes
smtpd_client_restrictions = reject_rbl_client sbl.spamhaus.org
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes
smtpd_delay_reject = yes
smtpd_relay_restrictions = permit_mynetworks permit_sasl_authenticated defer_unauth_destination

In the mail queue we see a number of: "Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender" with the sender being "MAILER-DAEMON@mydomain.com". The header info is as followed:

Received: by mydomain.com (Postfix)
    id EAF7616C0F94; Mon,  3 Apr 2017 07:01:32 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Mon,  3 Apr 2017 07:01:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: MAILER-DAEMON@mydomain.com (Mail Delivery System)
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
To: pziarnik@twmi.rr.com
Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/report; report-type=delivery-status;
    boundary="AB75F16C089F.1491228092/mydomain.com"
Message-Id: <20170403140132.EAF7616C0F94@mydomain.com>

When when I search for the message id in the maillog I see:

Apr  3 07:01:32 webserver postfix/cleanup[21189]: EAF7616C0F94: message-id=<20170403140132.EAF7616C0F94@mydomain.com>
Apr  3 07:01:32 webserver postfix/bounce[21225]: AB75F16C089F: sender non-delivery notification: EAF7616C0F94
Apr  3 07:01:32 webserver postfix/qmgr[19275]: EAF7616C0F94: from=<>, size=8381, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Apr  3 07:01:32 webserver postfix/qmgr[19275]: AB75F16C089F: removed
Apr  3 07:01:33 webserver postfix/smtp[21224]: EAF7616C0F94: host cdptpa-pub-iedge-vip.email.rr.com[107.14.166.70] refused to talk to me: 554 ERROR: Mail Refused - See http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=209.15.246.206
Apr  3 07:01:33 webserver postfix/smtp[21224]: EAF7616C0F94: to=<pziarnik@twmi.rr.com>, relay=dnvrco-pub-iedge-vip.email.rr.com[107.14.73.70]:25, delay=0.39, delays=0.02/0/0.37/0, dsn=4.0.0, status=deferred (host dnvrco-pub-iedge-vip.email.rr.com[107.14.73.70] refused to talk to me: 554 ERROR: Mail Refused - See http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=209.15.246.206)

The problem is that the queue isn't filling up with massive amounts of spam, which would make troubleshooting much easier, but only a certain amount per hour... enough to keep us blacklisted on the spam lists which is making life miserable. We have fail2ban running on postfix, proftpd, apache-badbot.

As mentioned we haven't found any nefarious scripts and we can't seem to pinpoint a client email account that is causing the spam.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[UFHH01]

Hi PleskyStuff,

In the mail queue we see a number of: "Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender" with the sender being "MAILER-DAEMON@mydomain.com".

As you can see in your mail.log, these bounce messages inform yourself about undelivered eMails ( reason: "refused to talk to me" because of being listed in RBLs ).
In this specific case:

host cdptpa-pub-iedge-vip.email.rr.com[107.14.166.70] refused to talk to me: 554 ERROR: Mail Refused - See http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=209.15.246.206

to=<pziarnik@twmi.rr.com>, relay=dnvrco-pub-iedge-vip.email.rr.com[107.14.73.70]:25, delay=0.39, delays=0.02/0/0.37/0, dsn=4.0.0, status=deferred (host dnvrco-pub-iedge-vip.email.rr.com[107.14.73.70] refused to talk to me: 554 ERROR: Mail Refused - See http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=209.15.246.206)

Reasons:

=> https://www.spamhaus.org/query/ip/209.15.246.206
=> The CBL​

You won't help yourself by inspecting the non-delivery notifications, you have to investigate WHICH script or mail - account sends spam from your server, because you won't get unlisted, if the spam continues. You already got informations from the Plesk Community, how you are able to investigate spam on your server, so it won't help you, if we re-post the suggestions.
In the first place, I would suggest to stop PHP - Mail - usage completely for EVERY domain on your server and only allow SMTP - authenticated scripts. Your goal should be to get off the blacklists as soon as possible and if this means, that your customers can't use PHP - Mail at the moment, all of them will understand your actions, to protect your IP(s).

 

[PleskyStuff]

Yes for sure. Thank you for your help. I will post back if we continue to have issues.