ASSP Problems since recent WHM updates

[Phil Hitchman]

Has anyone been getting problems with ASSP (free version) since the recent WHM/cPanel updates? I've been getting problems with 2 servers all week.

It crashed Exim and ASSP on both my servers last night.

It keeps giving me the errors...

"Failed to determine the daemon_smtp_ports or daemon_smtp_ports set wrongly. You should have "daemon_smtp_ports = 125" at "/etc/exim.conf.local" and rebuild Exim configuration. Alternatively use the Install Exim Configs option at Server Maintaince section. "

and...

"Found obsolete HELO rule at exim.conf. You should remove it. Alternatively use the Install Exim Configs option at Server Maintaince section."

But rebuilding the Exim configurstion, even when using the ASSP "Install configs" button does not solve it. ASSP is definitely writing the new config files, but it still fails.

If I restore the Exim config files back to how they were yesterday I don't get the errors in ASSP, but Exim fails to load with...

"Starting exim: 2017-02-09 09:40:38 Exim configuration error in line 556 of /etc/exim.conf:
error in ACL: unknown ACL condition/modifier in "demime = *" [FAILED]"

I tried to remove that line but it then fails with other errors so gave up and ran the ASSP Install Configs again and it went back to the first message again.

So ASSP is actually generating the config files that are causing the issue!

Any ideas anyone? I'm starting to tear my hair out with ASSP recently and getting close to uninstalling it!

 

[Recifier]

Demime was removed in exim 4.88 which is included in recent cpanel releases.

I don't use ASSP so can't help otherwise, but that's probably the root cause of your problem.

 

[Phil Hitchman]

Demime was removed in exim 4.88 which is included in recent cpanel releases.

I don't use ASSP so can't help otherwise, but that's probably the root cause of your problem.

Ah! That's definitely worth looking at. Thanks. I've managed to get ASSP running by manually pointing Exim at the correct port in the config file, however updates will keep overwriting it so I may need to consider locking the file permissions on the config file. But ASSP2 (the ASSP X wrapper) is still crashing saying "Found obsolete HELO rule at exim.conf. You should remove it." - but it doesn't specify what Helo rule needs to be removed. Without the ASSP X wrapper running ASSP seems to let all spam through and just marks it as spam rather than diverting it to a junk folder

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello Phil,

Could you verify which versions of cPanel and ASSP are installed on the system?

Thank you.

 

[Phil Hitchman]

Hello Phil,

Could you verify which versions of cPanel and ASSP are installed on the system?

Thank you.

Yes it's WHM 62.0 (build 10), ASSP 1.3.9.1.0, ASSP X 2.2.7. I've got a feeling the Exim config files that ASSP X uses to set up ASSP, are not compatible with the latest version of WHM. I have left a message with Sultan who wrote ASSP X and am awaiting a reply.

Thanks,

Phil.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello Phil,

Let us know the outcome once you receive a response.

Thanks!

 

[Phil Hitchman]

OK, I've finally got to the bottom of it. It looks like the ASSP X config files (the ones that automatically set up the Exim configuration) are not compatible with the latest WHM release. Sultan, who built ASSP X, were very helpful and supplied me with new config files but I did have a few issues with them and they kept getting overwritten.

So in the end I made the changes manually. You need to ensure that in the network setup area within ASSP X, the SMTP listen port is set to 25, and the SMTP destination is set to 127.0.0.1:125. This means that ASSP is intercepting mail on 25 and passing it on to 125.

You also need to set any other STMP ports you're using in the "Second SMTP Listening Port". I've set mine to 465|587. This means that any encrypted connects are also being picked up.

Then, go to WHM Exim Config/Advanced, and make sure that daemon_smtp_ports is ONLY picking up from 125.

The problem is that if you also put 587 and 465 in there, ASSP crashes - presumably every time someone tries to connect to one of those posts, which is why it was running for a while and then randomly crashing... but that's just my presumption.

But the reason those ports kept getting added into the Exim config is that I was clicking the "Reload ASSP" button rather than the "Restart ASSP" button, which appears to have caused the ASSP/Exim config files to be overwritten with copies of the old faulty ones and I think it was adding the extra port numbers to the Exim config.

So in summary, change the ASSP ports to whatever you use, then point the destination to 125. Then manually edit the Exim config rather than using their "Auto Exim Config" tool and make sure you've only got 125 in Exim's listening port. And it works. Just don't touch the "Reload ASSP" or the "Auto Exim Config" tools!!

Hopefully, Sultan will roll out a permanent fix for this before too long!

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the sharing the update!