php mail function alternative

[Vaughn]

Hello Everyone,

We have disabled php mail() function on the server due to several reasons.

To begin with, it is a major cause of spamming. Next, since it uses the 'nobody' user to send mails, it creates problems of email spoofing.

Thus, scripts utilizing the 'nobody' user to not be able to send mails now. The best alternative to this is to use SMTP authentication. If you are one of those users who need this code then kindly find it as below:

<?php
//new function

$to = "post@example.com";
$nameto = "Who To";
$from = "post@example.com";
$namefrom = "Who From";
$subject = "Hello World Again!";
$message = "World, Hello!";
authSendEmail($from, $namefrom, $to, $nameto, $subject, $message);
?>


<?php
/* * * * * * * * * * * * * * SEND EMAIL FUNCTIONS * * * * * * * * * * * * * */ 

//Authenticate Send - 21st March 2005
//This will send an email using auth smtp and output a log array
//logArray - connection, 

function authSendEmail($from, $namefrom, $to, $nameto, $subject, $message)
{
 Â* Â*//SMTP + SERVER DETAILS
 Â* Â*/* * * * CONFIGURATION START * * * */
 Â* Â*$smtpServer = "mail.server.com";
 Â* Â*$port = "25";
 Â* Â*$timeout = "30";
 Â* Â*$username = "smtpusername";
 Â* Â*$password = "smtppassword";
 Â* Â*$localhost = "localhost";
 Â* Â*$newLine = "\r\n";
 Â* Â*/* * * * CONFIGURATION END * * * * */
 Â* Â*
 Â* Â*//Connect to the host on the specified port
 Â* Â*$smtpConnect = fsockopen($smtpServer, $port, $errno, $errstr, $timeout);
 Â* Â*$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);
 Â* Â*if(empty($smtpConnect)) 
 Â* Â*{
 Â* Â* Â* Â*$output = "Failed to connect: $smtpResponse";
 Â* Â* Â* Â*return $output;
 Â* Â*}
 Â* Â*else
 Â* Â*{
 Â* Â* Â* Â*$logArray['connection'] = "Connected: $smtpResponse";
 Â* Â*}

 Â* Â*//Request Auth Login
 Â* Â*fputs($smtpConnect,"AUTH LOGIN" . $newLine);
 Â* Â*$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);
 Â* Â*$logArray['authrequest'] = "$smtpResponse";
 Â* Â*
 Â* Â*//Send username
 Â* Â*fputs($smtpConnect, base64_encode($username) . $newLine);
 Â* Â*$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);
 Â* Â*$logArray['authusername'] = "$smtpResponse";
 Â* Â*
 Â* Â*//Send password
 Â* Â*fputs($smtpConnect, base64_encode($password) . $newLine);
 Â* Â*$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);
 Â* Â*$logArray['authpassword'] = "$smtpResponse";

 Â* Â*//Say Hello to SMTP
 Â* Â*fputs($smtpConnect, "HELO $localhost" . $newLine);
 Â* Â*$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);
 Â* Â*$logArray['heloresponse'] = "$smtpResponse";
 Â* Â*
 Â* Â*//Email From
 Â* Â*fputs($smtpConnect, "MAIL FROM: $from" . $newLine);
 Â* Â*$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);
 Â* Â*$logArray['mailfromresponse'] = "$smtpResponse";
 Â* Â* Â* Â*
 Â* Â*//Email To
 Â* Â*fputs($smtpConnect, "RCPT TO: $to" . $newLine);
 Â* Â*$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);
 Â* Â*$logArray['mailtoresponse'] = "$smtpResponse";
 Â* Â*
 Â* Â*//The Email
 Â* Â*fputs($smtpConnect, "DATA" . $newLine);
 Â* Â*$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);
 Â* Â*$logArray['data1response'] = "$smtpResponse";
 Â* Â*
 Â* Â*//Construct Headers
 Â* Â*$headers Â*= "MIME-Version: 1.0" . $newLine;
 Â* Â*$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" . $newLine;
 Â* Â*$headers .= "To: $nameto <$to>" . $newLine;
 Â* Â*$headers .= "From: $namefrom <$from>" . $newLine;
 Â* Â*
 Â* Â*fputs($smtpConnect, "To: $to\nFrom: $from\nSubject: $subject\n$headers\n\n$message\n.\n");
 Â* Â*$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);
 Â* Â*$logArray['data2response'] = "$smtpResponse";
 Â* Â*
 Â* Â*// Say Bye to SMTP
 Â* Â*fputs($smtpConnect,"QUIT" . $newLine); 
 Â* Â*$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);
 Â* Â*$logArray['quitresponse'] = "$smtpResponse"; Â* Â*
}
?>

Thanks,

[Vaughn]

You were getting this error as you had an error on line 9, you were missing the semi-colon at the end. I've added it and the error is now fixed, please check.

Thanks,

[Nimble]

I found a lot of errors with that authenticated SMTP send function.

For one, it doesn't seem to handle multi-line SMTP server responses, and the mail server certainly seems to be giving them.

So I wrote a small function to handle those:

function getSmtpResponse($smtpConnection)
{
Â*Â*Â*Â*$smtpResponse = "";
Â*Â*Â*Â*$stmpLine = "";
Â*Â*Â*Â*$getNextLine = true;
Â*Â*Â*Â*while ( $getNextLine )
Â*Â*Â*Â*{
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*$smtpLine = fgets($smtpConnection);
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*// If the line has a dash after the response number,
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*//Â*Â* it's a multiline response
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*$getNextLine = strpos( $smtpLine, "-" ) == 3;
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*$smtpResponse .= $smtpLine . "\r\n";
Â*Â*Â*Â*}
Â*Â*Â*Â*return $smtpResponse;
}

...and you replace:

$smtpResponse = fgets($smtpConnect, 515);

with

$smtpResponse = getSmtpResponse($smtpConnect);

Also, it seemed to be rejecting outright the AUTH LOGIN. I looked into this, and the order of things sent to the server was wrong. The HELO needs to be an EHLO in order to take this login type, and it needs to be the FIRST thing sent (that is, before the AUTH LOGIN).

How was I finding all this out? I had it split out the contents of the $logArray (in b2evolution, using the debug_die command and a short routine to split apart the array)

I haven't spent the time to figure out how to make it figure out sending errors, but I figure it's probably best to replace this function with something more permanent and less hacky in future.

Hope that helps

-- Ritchie