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OSSEC / HIDS Rule 3301

Rule family: OSSEC / HIDS
Rule ID: 3301
Definition status: Present in current source
Alert message / subject: Postfix: Message rejected by postfix configuration (554: permanent problems with the remote server).
Rule level: 6
Definition checked: 2026-10-21

Interpretation and response

This event is recorded as “Postfix: Message rejected by postfix configuration (554: permanent problems with the remote server).” Review the originating log and the affected host or service to determine whether the activity was expected.

An OSSEC/HIDS event records or correlates activity. Blocking depends on the originating application and any separately configured Active Response policy; an alert alone does not prove that an attack was blocked.

Documentation

The following guidance was migrated from the historical wiki and reviewed against the rule definition. Legacy ASL product names and interface instructions refer to the versions documented then. Use the current metadata above and your installed configuration when interpreting thresholds, notification settings and response behavior.

Description

ASL does not cause this event and does not cause any blocks associated with this event. ASL simply reports when your mail server blocks a relaying attempt. ASL has no control over your mail server.

This rule reports when your systems mail server has rejected a replaying attempt. This is when an attempt to send email through the server to a destination other than the server itself is rejected. For example, if your server accepts mail for “example.com”, and a user tries to use the server to send email to “atomicorp.com”, this is called “relaying”. If your mail server is not setup to allow relaying, then your mail server will reject attempts to use it to send email to another domain.

ASL does not control or configure this behavior in your mail server, it merely reports when this occurs. Therefore, if your mail server is rejecting mail from one of your users you will need to configure your mail server to allow relaying from the user. Please contact your mail server vendor for assistance with configuring your mail server to do this.

Disabling this rule will not allow your users to relay mail. It will simply “silence” the alert in ASL, however the mail will still be rejected by your mail server.

Troubleshooting

False Positives

None.

Tuning Guidance

If you wish to not block these connections, just disable Active Response in the ASL (historical reference) rule manager for this rule.

Additional Information

Notes

This technique is one of the oldest and most widely used methods to send spam. Systems that allow anyone to relay email through them are called “open relays”, and are used by spammers to hide the true location of the spammer and to also “steal” the trust users may have in the server. Open Relays are commonly blocked by other mail servers, so if your system is set up as an open relay mail server you may find that you will not be able to send email to other systems. You should never run your mail server as an open relay, and instead you should authenticate your users and only allow authorized and authenticated users to relay mail through your server.

Example log messages

Illustrative event summary (not a captured log): OSSEC/HIDS 3301 — Postfix: Message rejected by postfix configuration (554: permanent problems with the remote server)..

Source and revision

Migrated from HIDS_3301, wiki page 406, revision 5055 (20140821). Documentation review: 2026-10-21. An archived wiki status of Active is not a current deployment status.

For assistance, provide the rule ID, installed product and rule version, and a sanitized event to Atomicorp support .