Mail Delivery Reports UI Mixes Sender and From Address

vatra

February 15, 2026 20:13
Edited

Two columns from WHM > Mail Delivery Reports UI display the following:

Sender - The system user that sent the email
From Address - The email address that sent the email

When sending the Webmail UI, these two columns display the same address, for example email@example.com, but when a script from a website, let's say a WordPress contact form, sends the email:

Sender - email@example .com
From Address - cPuser@server.example .net

This is very confusing to track in the WHM > Mail Delivery Reports. The source of the email shows the opposite:

Sender - cPuser@server.example .net
From Address - email@example .com

I'm just curious why that is.

Comments

10 comments

cPRex Jurassic Moderator

February 17, 2026 18:08
Hey hey! I sent a message from webmail on my personal system and I see this in the /var/log/exim_mainlog file (with irrelevant lines edited out)
```
12:55:07 SMTP connection from (host.hostname.com) [::1]:53168 D=0s closed by QUIT
12:55:07 1vsPHv-00000006yiU-3J7r Sender identification U=username D=domain.com S=email@domain.com
12:55:07 1vsPHv-00000006yiU-3J7r SMTP connection outbound 1771350907 1vsPHv-00000006yiU-3J7r sender-address@domain.com.com destination-address@domain.com
2026-02-17 12:55:08 1vsPHv-00000006yiU-3J7r => recipient-address.com (recipient-address.com) <destination-address.com> R=lookuphost T=remote_smtp H=mx-att.mail.am0.yahoodns.net [98.138.3.192] X=TLS1.3:TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:128 CV=yes C="250 ok dirdel"
```
and this is what I'd expect. All good so far.

In the email itself I see the following headers:
```
Return-Path: <sender@domain.com>
From: <sender@domain.com>
```
Looks good there.

Let's check the Mail Delivery Reports page now - same address as you said.

NOW...I sent from the same address through a script. I actually have a cron script that sends a message for me so I had one to reference. I get the email address in the "From" column and the cPanel username as the Sender.

Do you have the "Restrict outgoing SMTP to root, exim, and mailman (FKA SMTP Tweak)" enabled in Tweak Settings? That would prevent unauthenticated mail from leaving the server and may help to clear these up or at least make the page more clear when they do happen. If not, it seems to just be working that way because it's reporting the user sending the message which is how the script makes the connection to Exim.
1
vatra

February 17, 2026 18:44

Edited
Yes, Restrict outgoing SMTP to root, exim, and mailman (FKA SMTP Tweak) is ON for me. When sending from Webmail or through a client via cP SMTP, the Sender and From Address in the Mail Delivery Reports (MDR) match in the received email's source and MDR. But when a script sends an email, they are swapped in the MDR.

BTW, I know that aligning MAIL_FROM (Sender in the MDR) and From header (From Address in the MDR) is not a cP issue. I solved it with the following code in WP.
```
add_action('phpmailer_init', function($phpmailer) {
    $phpmailer->Sender=$phpmailer->From;
});
```
You should use more RFC-friendly names in the MDR column headers:
Sender = Envelope Sender or Envelope From or MAIL_FROM or Return-Path
From Address = this can stay the same

Sometimes it is very confusing in MDR to find out who sent what and who received it for forwarded mail, for example.
0
cPRex Jurassic Moderator

February 17, 2026 18:48
But then I feel like we'll run into people asking "what is an Envelope Sender" when they see those names.

Let me run this by some other people and see if I can get some more thoughts.
0
cPRex Jurassic Moderator

February 17, 2026 19:00
Is there any chance you could include a screenshot of what you're seeing just so I can make sure we're all on the same page?
0
vatra

February 17, 2026 19:09
But then I feel like we'll run into people asking "what is an Envelope Sender" when they see those names.

That is true as well.

Is there any chance you could include a screenshot of what you're seeing just so I can make sure we're all on the same page?

Sure, no problem. Where can I send it?
0
vatra

February 17, 2026 19:12

Edited
I just feel like the Sender in the MDR should be the address that is visible in the From field of an email. This is the most intuitive title. This is currently the From Address in the MDR.

And the Envelope From, currently the Sender in the MDR, can be Mailbox or at least the cPanel User.
0
cPRex Jurassic Moderator

February 17, 2026 19:25
Let me poke some people and I'll get back to you!
1
vatra

February 17, 2026 19:31
Great!

BTW, I just rethought my logic on those renaming suggestions, and I see why this would be a hard decision to make, mainly because the Sender (basically MAIL_FROM) can display the same From Address or a cP user account's default address.
0
cPRex Jurassic Moderator

February 18, 2026 14:24
No good news on my end - at this point it doesn't look like they want to make adjustments to that page.
1
vatra

February 18, 2026 14:28
That's OK. We're ruffling feathers at least. :)
0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Comments

Didn't find what you were looking for?