#760278 exim4: no longer uses the FQDN as the HELO value with libnss-myhostname installed

Package:
exim4
Source:
exim4
Submitter:
Vincent Lefevre
Date:
2026-02-05 17:39:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
#760278#5
Date:
2014-09-02 13:03:44 UTC
From:
To:
Exim no longer uses the FQDN as the HELO value:

Received: from ypig (ypig.lip.ens-lyon.fr [140.77.13.48])
        by ioooi.vinc17.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id B5077988;
        Tue,  2 Sep 2014 14:48:45 +0200 (CEST)

This behavior is invalid and this can cause loss of mail with servers
using aggressive antispam rules. Note that "exim4 -bP" output has
changed from

  primary_hostname = ypig.lip.ens-lyon.fr

to

  primary_hostname = ypig

after an upgrade, perhaps due to the libnss-myhostname installation
(as a Recommends). Moreover,

$ hostname -f
ypig.lip.ens-lyon.fr

which is OK. So, it appears that exim4 does something wrong.
#760278#10
Date:
2014-09-02 13:36:33 UTC
From:
To:
severity 760278 normal
thanks

This behavior has been recently noticed on mailing lists as well. I
consider this a bug in libnss-myhostname.

See the docs how exim finds out its local host name. This mechanism
hasnt changed in decades.

Greetings
Marc
#760278#17
Date:
2014-09-02 14:50:16 UTC
From:
To:
Control: retitle -1 exim4: no longer uses the FQDN as the HELO value with libnss-myhostname installed

The libnss-myhostname maintainer downgraded the bug (which I've just
seen) to wishlist, which makes it remain unnoticed with apt-listbugs
and so on. This is completely stupid!

Perhaps exim should check that its method really yields a name with a
least a dot, and if not, use the standard method. Or perhaps it should
use the standard method directly.
#760278#24
Date:
2014-09-02 20:27:41 UTC
From:
To:
Please take this upstream.

Greetings
Marc