Skip to main content

Very strange create email address makes folder on system email bug

JAB Creations
  • Edited

1. The "Report a Defect" link (on the main forums index page) is linked to a page that doesn't have any text instances  of "bug" or "defect" effectively making it a dead link.

2. I have cPanel 122.0.1 (no, I can't update until I have a second server to test updates since last year an update killed an entire MONTH of my life) and there is a very strange bug.

The default email address created for the cPanel account (example123.com --> example1@server.example123.com) keeps getting non-subscribed folders added to it! I doubted it was my code and I verified what was happening which is even odder. During the website setup process a restricted noreply email address is created for new accounts using my software. Both the original cpapi2 Email addpop and the newer uapi Email add_pop CLI commands result in folders being created for the default cPanel email address! I tried the uapi command via PuTTY and it's the email address. So creating the delete@example123.com email account would result in a non-subscribed folder (verifying via Roundcube) named "delete@example123_com".

Now I know this is an older version of cPanel so I don't know if anyone else will be able to reproduce this issue. I can, technically, write some code to automatically delete these folders after creating the noreply email address but I obviously shouldn't have to. Unless there is some really strange WHM or cPanel option somewhere that makes this happen? But what would be the point?

Comments

7 comments

Date Votes
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Hey there!  The "Report a Defect" link seems to be a holdover from when anyone could submit tickets and not just direct license holders.  I'm not sure I have a better option than to direct that link to the support page that it's currently going to.

    For the email folder issue you say "during the website setup process" - can you get me more specifics on exactly what that means and at what point you see the folders being created?  You're just saying that creating *any* email account under the main cPanel account creates one of these folders for the default account?

    0
  • JAB Creations

    Hi Rex! So my platform is used to build websites and during the setup process a noreply email address is created. That way when the website needs to send an email notice to the webmaster (billing, client contacts, etc) there is a fully authenticated, DKIM, SPF, etc compliant email address that minimizes the chance that it gets flagged as spam.

    I use PHP and the only really viable manner of interaction with cPanel has been through the CLI APIs. Hence the cpapi2 and uapi commands that I mentioned in the first post.

    To determine and confirm what was causing this odd bug I eventually disabled the code that creates a noreply email address and reran my setup process for a disposable domain name (used to quickly test the setup process). Eventually I was able to confirm it was the cpapi2 command when nothing else was commented out. That was through my browser. Well, the cpapi2 command is an older API so I thought, why not test the uapi command via PuTTY to see if I can negate the bug?

    So I just went in to cPanel and made a new email account there and yes, another folder was created on the system email address. The folder is exactly the same string as the email address except that the periods are replaced by underscores.

    So it looks like creating any email account in those three manners creates these strange-bug folders on the system email. I only use the cPanel method when directly testing stuff with email and I don't use the other API methods nor am I in a position to justify dumping time to determine if they also cause the issue unless you give me a PHP file, CLI command or something that I can hot-drop and quickly test. I am happy to test things out, I just can't do any R&D right now. I hope this helps?

    0
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Excellent reply - let me play with this and I'll see what I come up with.

    1
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    I've confirmed this is happening, and I'm guessing this has been happening forever.  I'm going to see if I can get some more details on the "why" behind this or if it's something the team wants to fix.  I'll post as soon as I have an update to share!

    1
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator
    • Edited

    I think there's two separate issues here that we need to address, and I'll make it as clear as I can.  If you already know the first issue, please don't interpret it as me talking down to you, as I was also greatly confused at first until I remembered how the mail directory structure works and played with it for a bit.

    The first issue: the creation of these directories is normal and they are empty directories until mail is sent or received.  They just are empty placeholders until mail starts flowing for the account, which looks odd, but is completely normal.  I know this isn't the root of the problem, but that gets us to....

    The second issue: the folders showing up for all accounts inside Roundcube.  It's a bit odd, but doesn't really present a security concern as the main cPanel user can access all the email on the account anyway.  Really it comes down to "was this an intentional choice" and "should we keep things that way" or is there some other issue at play.

    I've created case CPANEL-47354 with our developers to have them take a look at this and see if they can get me more information, and I'll get you more details as soon as I have it!

    0
  • JAB Creations

    Rex, always a pleasure! I don't feel like you're talking down, you've been nothing but polite so thank you.

    So I want to acknowledge that in a somewhat recent thread you highly discouraged connecting to my system email address except through Roundcube I think. Fair enough, I partially comprehend where you're coming from on that. I need consolidation though so I know if it's going to be a technical or sales oriented day based on what I see in my consolidated inbox.

    Because performance is extremely important when I add a new Mail Account on my platform it figures out the folders at that point only. IMAP is an absolute mess and I only just two days ago discovered JMAP (using JSON) but I'm stuck with IMAP for now. My platform rejected the Mail Account outright because there wasn't a single uppercase letter in the folder names. I go above and beyond to ensure my platform's messages give useful information so people know why something didn't work so they have something actionable to correct. I was really confused when I saw email addresses! lol

    I get that cPanel supports a lot of features. I have a web platform too and in my earlier days was more focused on ticking checkboxes than stability however that has greatly changed over the years. I get that someone created this bug as a placeholder though my personal recommendation is to focus on internal stability. Since doing that myself it's brought a lot more clarity and focus to my work and I'm finding more success with that. Yeah, still add new and useful features but I've tried to avoid hacky implementations intended to save time because in the long run they don't.

    Any way, I obviously removed the email folders and added my system email address to my system. Now I don't discover problems on my platforms months later! That stability is helping my clients and I out a lot. Thanks for taking the time to look in to things!

    0
  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    You're very welcome - I'll likely have some more details on this later this week as the team discusses it, and I'll be sure to post when I hear something.

    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Didn't find what you were looking for?

New post