Coping With Postfix Mail Server Attacks
From Free Knowledge Base- The DUCK Project: information for everyone
Too many "smtp -t unix -u" processes
1005 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1006 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1007 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1008 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1009 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1010 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1011 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1012 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1013 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1014 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1015 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1016 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1017 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1018 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1019 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1020 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1021 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1022 ? S 0:00 bounce -z -n defer -t unix -u 1023 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1024 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1025 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1026 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1027 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1028 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1030 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1031 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1032 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1033 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1034 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1035 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1036 ? S 0:00 smtp -t unix -u 1038 ? S 0:00 dovecot/pop3-login
Someone is attacking your email server. The server is spawning too many smtp processes and is slow or nearly not responsive.
Lets verify. Check the mail queue.
mailq
You might see lots of entries that look similar to this:
4790F2C0DD7 2898 Mon Apr 6 13:08:07 MAILER-DAEMON
(connect to bny234.rayinsuranceclearly.ninja[94.228.216.234]:25: Connection timed out)
Angela.Sloan@bny234.rayinsuranceclearly.ninja
They might say "Connection timed out" or "Connection refused"
437AC2C07BB 9359 Tue Apr 7 18:05:33 MAILER-DAEMON
(connect to 1fxxn8s.eiroeir.eu[8.39.223.104]:25: Connection refused)
HawaiiVacationDeals@eiroeir.eu
