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Email Access Logs per domain on a shared VPS server

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15 comments

  • Jcats
    Just use grep on the following log files: /var/log/maillog /var/log/exim_mainlog Do you have any specific examples on what you are trying to pull, then we can toss you some examples.
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  • webmasteryoda
    Yes. example: office@exampledomain.com I need to know who logged in / tried to login to that mail account. Via webmail and email client. Can you help me with that?
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  • Jcats
    Via webmail

    The %40 is your @ sign below:
    grep "office%40exampledomain.com" /usr/local/cpanel/logs/access_log |grep login_only
    That will show you the IP using the login form for webmail for that specific email.
    email client


    grep imap-login /var/log/maillog |grep office@exampledomain.com
    If you look at "rip" that is the remote IP connecting to the mail server via the email client.
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  • cPanelMichael
    Hello, There are no features that provide separate mail access logs for each domain name or account, but you can search the global log for entries related to a specific domain name, as mentioned in the previous post. Thank you.
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  • webmasteryoda
    The %40 is your @ sign below:
    grep "office%40exampledomain.com" /usr/local/cpanel/logs/access_log |grep login_only
    That will show you the IP using the login form for webmail for that specific email.
    grep imap-login /var/log/maillog |grep office@exampledomain.com
    If you look at "rip" that is the remote IP connecting to the mail server via the email client.

    Thanks a lot. That helped me. One more thing: grep imap-login /var/log/maillog |grep office@exampledomain.com gave me nothing, so I grepped lmtp and found some logins (my client uses pop3), but there is no IPs, just "msgid" and at the end "saved mail to INBOX". And another one: Webmail logs are present from 14. june to 07. july. There is no older logs backup? (I need it for 09. jun). Thanks again
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  • cPanelMichael
    One more thing: grep imap-login /var/log/maillog |grep office@exampledomain.com[/EMAIL] gave me nothing, so I grepped lmtp and found some logins (my client uses pop3), but there is no IPs, just "msgid" and at the end "saved mail to INBOX".

    You may also want to search the log based on the date/time. For instance, if you find the time of the specific entry, then you could search for all entries around that time with a command such as:
    grep "Jul 7 11:" /var/log/maillog
    Webmail logs are present from 14. june to 07. july. There is no older logs backup? (I need it for 09. jun).

    The /var/log/maillog file is rotated based on your system's log rotation configuration (typically configured through the /etc/logrotate.conf file), so it's possible the older logs have been removed. That said, you could review /var/log directory to see if any archived copies are available (e.g. /var/log/maillog.1). Thank you.
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  • webmasteryoda
    Thanks Michael There is no rotation for /usr/local/cpanel/logs/access_log maillog is rotating, but that doesnt give me access logs for webmail.
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  • cPanelMichael
    maillog is rotating, but that doesnt give me access logs for webmail.

    Login activity for webmail should still exist in the /var/log/maillog file. EX:
    Jul 7 11:48:52 hostname dovecot: imap-login: Login: user=, method=PLAIN, rip=::1, lip=::1, mpid=32500, secured, session=<1234567890> Jul 7 11:48:52 hostname dovecot: imap(test1@cptest01.tld): Logged out in=427, out=2247, bytes=427/2247
    Thank you.
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  • webmasteryoda
    Ok, I understand now. As far as I saw, there are no access log IPs recorded in maillog (that is what I primarily need)
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  • Jcats
    Yeah unfortuntely maillog won't show you any IP since the authentication comes from the server, not remotely, since you cannot go back any further in the cPanel access logs, you are kind of stuck. Actually, try checking:
    head -1 /usr/local/cpanel/logs/login_log
    Does that go back further?
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  • webmasteryoda
    Yeah unfortuntely maillog won't show you any IP since the authentication comes from the server, not remotely, since you cannot go back any further in the cPanel access logs, you are kind of stuck. Actually, try checking:
    head -1 /usr/local/cpanel/logs/login_log
    Does that go back further?

    That gave me this: [2017-04-21 21:28:40 +0200] info [whostmgrd] xx.xxx.xxx.xxx - root "GET /3rdparty/cloudlinux/lve_ext_scritps.js HTTP/1.1" DEFERRED LOGIN whostmgrd: security token missing
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  • Jcats
    Yeah so that is a good thing since it goes back further, so you can now grep via that log since you require it to go back to June 9th which that goes back to April. That would only show you webmail though, but you can simply do
    grep office@exampledomain.com /usr/local/cpanel/logs/login_log
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  • webmasteryoda
    Bingo! [2017-06-09 17:08:58 +0200] info [webmaild] xx.xxx.xxx.xx - office@exampledomain.com "GET /cpsess3817214300/webmail/paper_lantern/mail/filters/editfilter.html?account=&filtername=anotherexampledomain.com HTTP/1.1" FAILED LOGIN webmaild: cookie ip check: IP address has changed I suspect that this is the user whom I was looking for. His IP was changed, maybe he was using Thor or something similar? He was logged in to exampledomain.com webmail. And anotherexampledomain.com is the one which is misused to fake email communication.
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  • Jcats
    Could be many reasons but that is one. I wouldn't bother trying to block by IP's as if it was malicious there are thousands and thousands of other IP's attackers can use, you would be better off just changing the password to something much stronger than what it was originally.
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  • webmasteryoda
    Sure. Its cPHulk thing and Config Server Firewall thing. But you are right for suggesting the password change to a stronger one. That particular account is very old, and it was migrating from server to server, so easy password remained throughout that process. This is offtopic, but I am 100% sure that password is not brute-forced. It must have been aquired from the infected windows computer.
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