Use identification method 'Message header'

With this identification method, you can define specific headers for us to search within outgoing messages. If a message does not have these lines, it is blocked by the filter. This can help to prevent or better track spam without affecting other senders of the domain.

Step 1: Configuring the identity header in the EuropeanMX admin panel

1

Log in to the admin panel. You can find instructions in our FAQ article "How can I log in to the Admin-Panel (web interface of the filter)?".

2

In the menu Outgoing, click on the sub-item Manage users.

3

Select the option Edit in the drop-down menu of the outgoing user.

4

Select Header from the drop-down menu Identification Method and click on the button + Add New Identification Header.

5

In the field Header name, enter the header name that you are configuring (e.g. X-AuthUser for Exim/cPanel or Received for Postfix).

For the "Header Value" choose between the following two options:

Simple: The entire message header value is used to identify unique users who share this identification method
Custom: Specify a custom regular expression that is used to extract the identity from the message header value to identify unique users who share this authentication method.

The individual regular expression must contain a group that represents the identity.
Remove after processing: If you do not want to keep the part of the header after it has been edited by EuropeanMX, select the Remove after processing checkbox. If you want to keep the part, please leave the checkbox unchecked.

Depending on how the message header is created, it may contain information that you should not publish. For example, if the identification is based on the user's login ID, you should ensure that the Remove after processing option is checked.

6

Click on Add.

If you have more than one identity configured, each identity will be processed in turn. If there are multiple headers in a message, EuropeanMX will always process the first header as the first one.

7

The setup at EuropeanMX is now completed. You can check the settings by searching for a sent message under Outgoing < Logs and viewing the column Identity. If you see the previously defined data in the column, the identification works correctly.

It is important to set up a good identification for your different mail streams in order to use this feature effectively.

Examples

There are many different message headers and identities that you can use. Below are a few examples:

cPanel

Header name: X-AuthUser
Header value: Simple

cPanel

Header name: X-PHP-Originating-Script
Header value: ^(.*?)\(.*$

PostFix

Header name: Received
Header value: .*\(Authenticated sender: (.*?)\).*

Step 2: Setting up the identity header on your mail server

To enable EuropeanMX to check the identity header when sending a message, your mail server must be configured to automatically add the identity header when the message is transferred. Below we have put together a few sample configurations:

Microsoft Exchange

To add individual lines in the message header, an XHeader transport agent must be created in Microsoft Exchange. For more information, please refer to the Microsoft KB article (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/developer/exchange-server-2010/bb204064(v%3Dexchg.140)).

cPanel/Exim

headers_add = X-AuthUser: $authenticated_id
headers_add = X-AuthUser: ${if match {$authenticated_id}{.*@.*}\
{$authenticated_id} {${if match {$authenticated_id}{.+}\
{$authenticated_id@$primary_hostname}{$authenticated_id}}}}
headers_add = ${if !eq{$original_domain}{$domain}{X-Forwarded-For: $original_domain}}

PostFix

Please add the following line in your postfix to the file main.cf, if not already present

smtpd_sasl_authenticated_header = yes

This adds the line Authenticated Sender to the received message header.

How can I use the identification method 'Message header'?

Step 1: Configuring the identity header in the EuropeanMX admin panel

Examples

cPanel

cPanel

PostFix

Step 2: Setting up the identity header on your mail server

Microsoft Exchange

cPanel/Exim

PostFix