#Exim
tinker Sends Mail but the Web Can't — proc_open Disabled in FPM
Sending mail from tinker works perfectly, but submitting the actual form sends nothing, and the mail log has no entries — because CLI and PHP-FPM are not the same PHP environment. Includes a working SMTP AUTH configuration for DirectAdmin hosting and the From rule you must get right.
Mailbox Compromised or Just Password Guessing? Prove It First
Telling a customer their account has been compromised is an allegation that needs decisive evidence first. This article covers what counts as decisive evidence, two cases with opposite outcomes, and the case I nearly reported incorrectly.
Stolen Mailbox Password Sent 1,786 Spam Emails Unseen by CSF/LFD
A real case of a stolen mailbox password used to send 50-75 spam emails a day, below a limit of 200, for 4 straight weeks without a single response from CSF/LFD/BFM because they only count failed authentication attempts, with the decisive question of whether an account was compromised or merely under attack, exim forensic commands, and a blocklist removal playbook
Mail Checks Ban the Whole Office—Fixing It with Login Auto-Whitelist
Real mail clients behave exactly like bots — office machines keep retrying old passwords until CSF bans the whole office. This article covers an auto-whitelist system that watches for successful logins + Thai GeoIP, then grants a temporary allow for 24 hours, along with 5 pitfalls I learned the hard way.
Auto-Unblock the Office in CSF with a Geo+Account Gate
A real case of a client office whose IP changes daily, with a ghost device using an old password that repeatedly gets the whole office blocked by CSF. How I automated unblocking with a narrow account+geo gate that lets the real office through while keeping foreign credential attacks blocked.
Reading exim mainlog for Stuck Clients — Mail Forensics Part 1
How I read /var/log/exim/mainlog to distinguish an office machine using the wrong password from an attacker running a brute force attack, with the commands I use when customers need answers fast.
Tracing Dovecot IMAP/POP Failures on DirectAdmin and Keeping 90-Day Logs
A follow-up to Mail Forensics — trace IMAP/POP failures in /var/log/mail.log on DirectAdmin, distinguish stuck clients from attackers using cross-protocol ratios, and adjust logrotate to keep a full 90 days of logs instead of defaults that lose them within days