Initialization failed: Namespace '': mkdir(/var/www/mail) failed: Permission denied

trash at skrilnetz.net trash at skrilnetz.net
Thu Oct 26 19:36:01 EEST 2017


  Quoting Aki Tuomi <aki.tuomi at dovecot.fi>:

>> On October 26, 2017 at 7:10 PM trash at skrilnetz.net wrote:
>>
>>   Quoting trash at skrilnetz.net:
>>
>> Quoting Aki Tuomi <aki.tuomi at dovecot.fi>:
>>
>> On October 26, 2017 at 5:53 PM trash at skrilnetz.net wrote:
>>
>>   Quoting Aki Tuomi <aki.tuomi at dovecot.fi>:
>>
>> On October 26, 2017 at 5:40 PM trash at skrilnetz.net wrote:
>>
>>   Quoting Steffen Kaiser <skdovecot at smail.inf.fh-brs.de>:
>>
>> On Thu, 26 Oct 2017, trash at skrilnetz.net wrote:
>>
>> /dovecot: lda(www-data): Error: user www-data: Initialization
>> failed: Namespace '': MKDIR(/VAR/WWW/MAIL) failed: Permission
>> denied (euid=33(www-data) egid=33(www-data) missing +w perm:
>> /var/www, dir owned by 1001:1001 mode=0755//)  /
>>
>> I did some troubleshooting and I don't understand where
>> the MKDIR(/VAR/WWW/MAIL) is coming from. Mailboxes are in /var/mail
>> and
>>
>> ^^ /var/mail contains the INBOX only
>>
>> sending/receiving emails is working as it always did.
>>
>> mail_location is still setup to be MAIL_LOCATION =
>> MBOX:~/MAIL:INBOX=/VAR/MAIL/%U
>>
>> Everything else is in ~/MAIL (why uppercase?)
>>
>> Why is it trying a mkdir in /var/www?
>>
>> Because most likely /var/www is the home directory of www-data and
>> you've configured to use $HOME/MAIL as base directory, which is
>> /var/www/mail
>> - -- Steffen Kaiser
>>
>> I don't know where the uppercase is coming from. In the email I've
>> sent its lower case.
>>
>> How can I fix that without changing permissions of /var/www? Where is
>> $HOME/MAIL configured? Why do I get this error now for the first time,
>> when there was no change to the system configuration?
>>
>> Probably someone attempted to send email via a crappy script and
>> it's now trying to deliver to www-data.
>>
>> first_valid_uid = 1001
>> last_valid_uid = 1001
>>
>> also, doveconf -n would be useful.
>> Aki
>>
>> Here is doveconf -n: https://pastebin.com/raw/s6cKwHGc
>>
>> Home directory is provided by passwd userdb when present in passwd
>> file. to override it, use
>>
>> userdb {
>>   driver = passwd
>>   override_fields = home=/var/mail/%Lu
>> }
>> Aki
>>
>>    Thanks for the quick replies.
>>    I've checked, and the user database information is stored in
>> /home/user/mail/ for every user.
>>    That works as expected without changing anything. I have still the
>> same question…
>>    Why is it trying to write to /var/www when the mailbox is in
>> /var/mail/ and the user data in /home/user/mail/?
>>
>>     
>>
>>   Ok, got it!
>>    
>>   It's trying to deliver to user www-data and because of below line in
>> passwd, it attempts to create the dir in www, right?
>>    
>>   /www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologin/[1]
>>    
>>   How can I find out with email is causing the error message?
>
> If you are using postfix, try mailq
> Aki

Resolved!

I've added an alias (/etc/aliases) to deliver mail for www-data to  
user admin. I then delivered all messages by running: postqueue -f
I've checked the messages and it seems to be that a wordpress plugin  
was sending to www-data.

Thanks for the help, getting me in the right direction.



Links:
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