Problem: Default Sender Address in OX Causes spamrunner User Not Found Error

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univention-ox-spamrunner Cannot Find Users When Default Sender Address Changed

Problem:

When users change their default sender address in Open-Xchange (OX) settings, the univention-ox-spamrunner may fail to locate the corresponding user. In the system log, the following error appears:

user not found

As a result, spam checks are not applied to these users. This issue commonly occurs in environments with multiple mail domains.

Example scenario:

  • UCS environment with domains: univention.com and univention.fr.
  • User is configured as user@univention.com (primary mail address).
  • User sets user@univention.fr as default sender address in OX (configured as an alternative address).

In this case, spamrunner fails until the default sender address is reverted to the primary mail address.

Root Cause:

The spamrunner script used the default sender address instead of the user’s UID to locate their Maildir. When the default sender address differs from the primary address, spamrunner cannot find the Maildir.

Reference: Univention Bug 52462

Workaround / Patch:

A patch is available that resolves this issue for UCS 5.0-x and UCS 5.x (including UCS 5.2). The patch ensures that spamrunner uses the user UID instead of the default sender address.

Patch Example:

--- spamrunner.orig     2025-09-01 15:45:07.398834428 +0200
+++ spamrunner  2025-09-01 15:44:44.518686274 +0200
@@ -207,25 +207,25 @@
-               if not os.path.exists('%s/Maildir' % (get_user_home(user["send_addr"],))):
+               if not os.path.exists('%s/Maildir' % (get_user_home(user["uid"],))):
...
-               maildir = "maildir:%s/Maildir" % get_user_home(user["send_addr"])
+               maildir = "maildir:%s/Maildir" % get_user_home(user["uid"])
...
-                       cmd = ["/usr/bin/doveadm", "-v", "expunge", "-u", user["send_addr"], "mailbox", user["confirmed_spam"], "all"]
+                       cmd = ["/usr/bin/doveadm", "-v", "expunge", "-u", user["uid"], "mailbox", user["confirmed_spam"], "all"]
...
-                       syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, "Failed to copy h/spam mails for user %r.\n%s" % (user["send_addr"], traceback.format_exc()))
+                       syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, "Failed to copy h/spam mails for user %r.\n%s" % (user["uid"], traceback.format_exc()))

Step 1: Backup Original Script

Before applying the patch, create a backup of the original spamrunner script:

cp /usr/sbin/spamrunner /usr/sbin/spamrunner.bak

Step 2: Install patch Tool

The patch utility is required to apply the patch:

  1. apt update
  2. apt install patch -y

Step 3: Apply the Patch

  1. Save the patch file as spamrunner.patch.
  • wget https://forge.univention.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=11352
  • mv attachment.cgi\?id\=11352 spamrunner.patch
  1. Use the command below to patch the /usr/sbin/spamrunner:

patch /usr/sbin/spamrunner < spamrunner.patch

Output:

patching file /usr/sbin/spamrunner

Step 4: Verify Changes

After applying the patch, run spamrunner in verbose mode to verify that it correctly finds users regardless of the default sender address:

/usr/sbin/spamrunner -v

Check for any remaining errors.
tail -n 10 /var/log/syslog
or
journalctl -u spamrunner

Conclusion

This patch ensures that univention-ox-spamrunner reliably processes spam/ham for all users, even if their default sender address differs from their primary mail address.

See also: