Provided by: postfix_2.11.0-1ubuntu1.2_amd64 
NAME
access - Postfix SMTP server access table
SYNOPSIS
postmap /etc/postfix/access
postmap -q "string" /etc/postfix/access
postmap -q - /etc/postfix/access <inputfile
DESCRIPTION
This document describes access control on remote SMTP client information: host names,
network addresses, and envelope sender or recipient addresses; it is implemented by the
Postfix SMTP server. See header_checks(5) or body_checks(5) for access control on the
content of email messages.
Normally, the access(5) table is specified as a text file that serves as input to the
postmap(1) command. The result, an indexed file in dbm or db format, is used for fast
searching by the mail system. Execute the command "postmap /etc/postfix/access" to rebuild
an indexed file after changing the corresponding text file.
When the table is provided via other means such as NIS, LDAP or SQL, the same lookups are
done as for ordinary indexed files.
Alternatively, the table can be provided as a regular-expression map where patterns are
given as regular expressions, or lookups can be directed to TCP-based server. In those
cases, the lookups are done in a slightly different way as described below under "REGULAR
EXPRESSION TABLES" or "TCP-BASED TABLES".
CASE FOLDING
The search string is folded to lowercase before database lookup. As of Postfix 2.3, the
search string is not case folded with database types such as regexp: or pcre: whose lookup
fields can match both upper and lower case.
TABLE FORMAT
The input format for the postmap(1) command is as follows:
pattern action
When pattern matches a mail address, domain or host address, perform the
corresponding action.
blank lines and comments
Empty lines and whitespace-only lines are ignored, as are lines whose first non-
whitespace character is a `#'.
multi-line text
A logical line starts with non-whitespace text. A line that starts with whitespace
continues a logical line.
EMAIL ADDRESS PATTERNS
With lookups from indexed files such as DB or DBM, or from networked tables such as NIS,
LDAP or SQL, patterns are tried in the order as listed below:
user@domain
Matches the specified mail address.
domain.tld
Matches domain.tld as the domain part of an email address.
The pattern domain.tld also matches subdomains, but only when the string
smtpd_access_maps is listed in the Postfix parent_domain_matches_subdomains
configuration setting.
.domain.tld
Matches subdomains of domain.tld, but only when the string smtpd_access_maps is not
listed in the Postfix parent_domain_matches_subdomains configuration setting.
user@ Matches all mail addresses with the specified user part.
Note: lookup of the null sender address is not possible with some types of lookup table.
By default, Postfix uses <> as the lookup key for such addresses. The value is specified
with the smtpd_null_access_lookup_key parameter in the Postfix main.cf file.
EMAIL ADDRESS EXTENSION
When a mail address localpart contains the optional recipient delimiter (e.g.,
user+foo@domain), the lookup order becomes: user+foo@domain, user@domain, domain,
user+foo@, and user@.
HOST NAME/ADDRESS PATTERNS
With lookups from indexed files such as DB or DBM, or from networked tables such as NIS,
LDAP or SQL, the following lookup patterns are examined in the order as listed:
domain.tld
Matches domain.tld.
The pattern domain.tld also matches subdomains, but only when the string
smtpd_access_maps is listed in the Postfix parent_domain_matches_subdomains
configuration setting.
.domain.tld
Matches subdomains of domain.tld, but only when the string smtpd_access_maps is not
listed in the Postfix parent_domain_matches_subdomains configuration setting.
net.work.addr.ess
net.work.addr
net.work
net Matches the specified IPv4 host address or subnetwork. An IPv4 host address is a
sequence of four decimal octets separated by ".".
Subnetworks are matched by repeatedly truncating the last ".octet" from the remote
IPv4 host address string until a match is found in the access table, or until
further truncation is not possible.
NOTE 1: The access map lookup key must be in canonical form: do not specify
unnecessary null characters, and do not enclose network address information with
"[]" characters.
NOTE 2: use the cidr lookup table type to specify network/netmask patterns. See
cidr_table(5) for details.
net:work:addr:ess
net:work:addr
net:work
net Matches the specified IPv6 host address or subnetwork. An IPv6 host address is a
sequence of three to eight hexadecimal octet pairs separated by ":".
Subnetworks are matched by repeatedly truncating the last ":octetpair" from the
remote IPv6 host address string until a match is found in the access table, or
until further truncation is not possible.
NOTE 1: the truncation and comparison are done with the string representation of
the IPv6 host address. Thus, not all the ":" subnetworks will be tried.
NOTE 2: The access map lookup key must be in canonical form: do not specify
unnecessary null characters, and do not enclose network address information with
"[]" characters.
NOTE 3: use the cidr lookup table type to specify network/netmask patterns. See
cidr_table(5) for details.
IPv6 support is available in Postfix 2.2 and later.
ACCEPT ACTIONS
OK Accept the address etc. that matches the pattern.
all-numerical
An all-numerical result is treated as OK. This format is generated by address-based
relay authorization schemes such as pop-before-smtp.
For other accept actions, see "OTHER ACTIONS" below.
REJECT ACTIONS
Postfix version 2.3 and later support enhanced status codes as defined in RFC 3463. When
no code is specified at the beginning of the text below, Postfix inserts a default
enhanced status code of "5.7.1" in the case of reject actions, and "4.7.1" in the case of
defer actions. See "ENHANCED STATUS CODES" below.
4NN text
5NN text
Reject the address etc. that matches the pattern, and respond with the numerical
three-digit code and text. 4NN means "try again later", while 5NN means "do not try
again".
The following responses have special meaning for the Postfix SMTP server:
421 text (Postfix 2.3 and later)
521 text (Postfix 2.6 and later)
After responding with the numerical three-digit code and text, disconnect
immediately from the SMTP client. This frees up SMTP server resources so
that they can be made available to another SMTP client.
Note: The "521" response should be used only with botnets and other malware
where interoperability is of no concern. The "send 521 and disconnect"
behavior is NOT defined in the SMTP standard.
REJECT optional text...
Reject the address etc. that matches the pattern. Reply with
"$access_map_reject_code optional text..." when the optional text is specified,
otherwise reply with a generic error response message.
DEFER optional text...
Reject the address etc. that matches the pattern. Reply with
"$access_map_defer_code optional text..." when the optional text is specified,
otherwise reply with a generic error response message.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.6 and later.
DEFER_IF_REJECT optional text...
Defer the request if some later restriction would result in a REJECT action. Reply
with "$access_map_defer_code 4.7.1 optional text..." when the optional text is
specified, otherwise reply with a generic error response message.
Prior to Postfix 2.6, the SMTP reply code is 450.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later.
DEFER_IF_PERMIT optional text...
Defer the request if some later restriction would result in a an explicit or
implicit PERMIT action. Reply with "$access_map_defer_code 4.7.1 optional
text..." when the optional text is specified, otherwise reply with a generic error
response message.
Prior to Postfix 2.6, the SMTP reply code is 450.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later.
For other reject actions, see "OTHER ACTIONS" below.
OTHER ACTIONS
restriction...
Apply the named UCE restriction(s) (permit, reject, reject_unauth_destination, and
so on).
BCC user@domain
Send one copy of the message to the specified recipient.
If multiple BCC actions are specified within the same SMTP MAIL transaction, only
the last action will be used.
This feature is not part of the stable Postfix release.
DISCARD optional text...
Claim successful delivery and silently discard the message. Log the optional text
if specified, otherwise log a generic message.
Note: this action currently affects all recipients of the message. To discard only
one recipient without discarding the entire message, use the transport(5) table to
direct mail to the discard(8) service.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.
DUNNO Pretend that the lookup key was not found. This prevents Postfix from trying
substrings of the lookup key (such as a subdomain name, or a network address
subnetwork).
This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.
FILTER transport:destination
After the message is queued, send the entire message through the specified external
content filter. The transport name specifies the first field of a mail delivery
agent definition in master.cf; the syntax of the next-hop destination is described
in the manual page of the corresponding delivery agent. More information about
external content filters is in the Postfix FILTER_README file.
Note 1: do not use $number regular expression substitutions for transport or
destination unless you know that the information has a trusted origin.
Note 2: this action overrides the main.cf content_filter setting, and affects all
recipients of the message. In the case that multiple FILTER actions fire, only the
last one is executed.
Note 3: the purpose of the FILTER command is to override message routing. To
override the recipient's transport but not the next-hop destination, specify an
empty filter destination (Postfix 2.7 and later), or specify a
transport:destination that delivers through a different Postfix instance (Postfix
2.6 and earlier). Other options are using the recipient-dependent transport_maps or
the sender-dependent sender_dependent_default_transport_maps features.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.
HOLD optional text...
Place the message on the hold queue, where it will sit until someone either deletes
it or releases it for delivery. Log the optional text if specified, otherwise log
a generic message.
Mail that is placed on hold can be examined with the postcat(1) command, and can be
destroyed or released with the postsuper(1) command.
Note: use "postsuper -r" to release mail that was kept on hold for a significant
fraction of $maximal_queue_lifetime or $bounce_queue_lifetime, or longer. Use
"postsuper -H" only for mail that will not expire within a few delivery attempts.
Note: this action currently affects all recipients of the message.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.
PREPEND headername: headervalue
Prepend the specified message header to the message. When more than one PREPEND
action executes, the first prepended header appears before the second etc.
prepended header.
Note: this action must execute before the message content is received; it cannot
execute in the context of smtpd_end_of_data_restrictions.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later.
REDIRECT user@domain
After the message is queued, send the message to the specified address instead of
the intended recipient(s).
Note: this action overrides the FILTER action, and currently affects all recipients
of the message.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later.
WARN optional text...
Log a warning with the optional text, together with client information and if
available, with helo, sender, recipient and protocol information.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.1 and later.
ENHANCED STATUS CODES
Postfix version 2.3 and later support enhanced status codes as defined in RFC 3463. When
an enhanced status code is specified in an access table, it is subject to modification.
The following transformations are needed when the same access table is used for client,
helo, sender, or recipient access restrictions; they happen regardless of whether Postfix
replies to a MAIL FROM, RCPT TO or other SMTP command.
• When a sender address matches a REJECT action, the Postfix SMTP server will
transform a recipient DSN status (e.g., 4.1.1-4.1.6) into the corresponding sender
DSN status, and vice versa.
• When non-address information matches a REJECT action (such as the HELO command
argument or the client hostname/address), the Postfix SMTP server will transform a
sender or recipient DSN status into a generic non-address DSN status (e.g., 4.0.0).
REGULAR EXPRESSION TABLES
This section describes how the table lookups change when the table is given in the form of
regular expressions. For a description of regular expression lookup table syntax, see
regexp_table(5) or pcre_table(5).
Each pattern is a regular expression that is applied to the entire string being looked up.
Depending on the application, that string is an entire client hostname, an entire client
IP address, or an entire mail address. Thus, no parent domain or parent network search is
done, user@domain mail addresses are not broken up into their user@ and domain constituent
parts, nor is user+foo broken up into user and foo.
Patterns are applied in the order as specified in the table, until a pattern is found that
matches the search string.
Actions are the same as with indexed file lookups, with the additional feature that
parenthesized substrings from the pattern can be interpolated as $1, $2 and so on.
TCP-BASED TABLES
This section describes how the table lookups change when lookups are directed to a TCP-
based server. For a description of the TCP client/server lookup protocol, see
tcp_table(5). This feature is not available up to and including Postfix version 2.4.
Each lookup operation uses the entire query string once. Depending on the application,
that string is an entire client hostname, an entire client IP address, or an entire mail
address. Thus, no parent domain or parent network search is done, user@domain mail
addresses are not broken up into their user@ and domain constituent parts, nor is user+foo
broken up into user and foo.
Actions are the same as with indexed file lookups.
EXAMPLE
The following example uses an indexed file, so that the order of table entries does not
matter. The example permits access by the client at address 1.2.3.4 but rejects all other
clients in 1.2.3.0/24. Instead of hash lookup tables, some systems use dbm. Use the
command "postconf -m" to find out what lookup tables Postfix supports on your system.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_client_restrictions =
check_client_access hash:/etc/postfix/access
/etc/postfix/access:
1.2.3 REJECT
1.2.3.4 OK
Execute the command "postmap /etc/postfix/access" after editing the file.
BUGS
The table format does not understand quoting conventions.
SEE ALSO
postmap(1), Postfix lookup table manager
smtpd(8), SMTP server
postconf(5), configuration parameters
transport(5), transport:nexthop syntax
README FILES
Use "postconf readme_directory" or "postconf html_directory" to locate this information.
SMTPD_ACCESS_README, built-in SMTP server access control
DATABASE_README, Postfix lookup table overview
LICENSE
The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.
AUTHOR(S)
Wietse Venema
IBM T.J. Watson Research
P.O. Box 704
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
ACCESS(5)