[vps-mail] Update on obscuring majordomo list names

[John Lock <jlock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

I was following up on some recent discussions about securing majordomo 
lists by changing the default "listname-outgoing" alias and adding 
"listname-outgoing, null" to the spec to prevent the outgoing alias from 
being revealed in the headers.

Well that all works fine, but there's one significant side-effect: many 
SMTP servers send bounces back to the null address, rather than the list 
owner, and you never hear about them.

I discovered this when tightening up one of my more active lists, which 
regularly generates a couple dozen bounces each week.  After adding the 
"null" alias to the outgoing spec, I noticed a dramatic drop in the number 
of bounces I got back each week.  Suspecting something was not right, I 
removed the null alias, et voila!, the bounces returned.

It appears that some servers grab that null address and bounce to 
it.  Others seem to get the return path from somewhere else, which ends up 
back at the list owner.

So, rather than using null, I think it's better to use the list owner's 
address (or some other alias that goes to the list owner) in the outgoing 
list spec.  That seems to do the trick of hiding the outgoing alias while 
not losing any bounces that come back.

Cheers!
John Lock - VP, Technology
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