found host? host not found?

[Michael Kjorling]

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On Dec 10 2001 18:48 +0900, koji watanabe wrote:

> Hi!
>
> amateur question...
>
> We have a sparc-solaris8 box in named (8.1.2) and sendmail
> (8.9.3).

Upgrade. BIND 8.1.2 has several root exploits.

Also sendmail is at 8.12 by now, but that is nowhere near as critical
an upgrade as your BIND installation. Check
http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/bind-security.html


> Although we have to send e-mail to "name at domain.dom" everyday as
>  a batch job,
> occasionally we find it haven't done.
>
> We know the other party's MX record that we want to send to,
> that is "exchanger.domain.dom."
>
> The other party's zone record is ,
>
>   =============================================================
>   $ORIGIN  dom.
>   domain	IN	SOA	exchange.domain.dom. postmaster...
>   		IN	NS	exchanger.domain.dom.
>   		IN	MX 10	exchanger.domain.dom.
>
>   $ORIGIN  domain.dom.
>
>   exchanger	IN	A	192.168.10.10
>   ==============================================================
>
> we want to send e-mail to "EXCHANGER.DOMAIN.DOM".
>
> according to sendmail log:
>
>   =============================================================
>   Nov 27 15:06:38 g-fw sendmail[16736]: [ID 801593 mail.info]
>   BAA16730:   to=<name at domain.dom>, delay=00:00:00,
>   xdelay=00:00:00, mailer=smtp,   relay=exchanger.domain.dom.,
>   stat=Host unknown (Name server: exchanger.domain.dom.
>   : host not found)
>   =============================================================
>
> The quesion is ,
>
> Sendmail did not know that "domain.dom" 's MX is
> "EXCHANGER.DOMAIN.DOM" as long as he made inquire to nameserver.
>  Because this is available only in nameserver, he has no hosts
>  entry in local.
>
>  But sendmail has judged  "host not found" to the answer he got.
>  why sendmail couldn't get IP address
>
> What happened?
>
> That means he was acquire "EXCHANGER.DOMAIN.DOM" as MX,
> but he can't getA record of that?

There is no "dom" TLD. According to dig:

	; <<>> DiG 9.2.0 <<>> @a.root-servers.net. dom. ns +norec
	;; global options:  printcmd
	;; Got answer:
	;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 55693
	;; flags: qr aa; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

	;; QUESTION SECTION:
	;dom.                           IN      NS

	;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
	.                       86400   IN      SOA     A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. nstld.verisign-grs.com. 2001120901 1800 900 604800 86400

	;; Query time: 180 msec
	;; SERVER: 198.41.0.4#53(a.root-servers.net.)
	;; WHEN: Mon Dec 10 11:18:38 2001
	;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 96

If you obfuscated your log entries, zone file, host names and e-mail
address, and the problem is intermittent: check all delegated name
servers. There is no way anyone can help you with that unless you tell
us what your system sees.


Michael Kjörling

- -- 
Michael Kjörling  --  Programmer/Network administrator  ^..^
PGP: 95f1 074d 336d f8f0 f297 6a5b 2aa3 7bfd 8a70 e33e   \/
Internet: michael at kjorling.com -- FidoNet: 2:204/254.4

"There is something to be said about not trying to be glamorous
and popular and cool. Just be real -- and life will be real."
(Joyce Sequichie Hifler, September 13 2001, www.hifler.com)
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