php headers mail headers "554 Message not allowed - Headers are not RFC compliant[291]"

Question

I'm having problems sending email to yahoo.com email addresses, the mail I send from my php script works perfectly for every other domain i send it to apart from one of our users who insists on keeping her yahoo email.

here are my headers

    $headers = array();
$headers[] = "MIME-Version: 1.0";
$headers[] = "Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1";
$headers[] = "Date: $date";
$headers[] = "From: 'DSAC Events' <$from>";
$headers[] = "Reply-To:  <$replyto>"; 
$headers[] = "Subject: {$subject}";
$headers[] = "Return-Path: <$from>";
$headers[] = "X-Priority: 3";//1 = High, 3 = Normal, 5 = Low
$headers[] = "X-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion();

mail($to, $subject, $msg, implode("\r\n", $headers));

I've read lots posts about people with the same problem, I've tried adding a message-id and return-path I've added the date: after reading that might be the problem and various other things to no avail.

Here is an example of the bounced mail source.

Return-path: <>
Envelope-to: [email protected]
Delivery-date: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:41:32 +0000
Received: from mailnull by zeus1.easy-internet.co.uk with local (Exim 4.82)
    id 1Xn7Cm-001cxb-8a
    for [email protected]; Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:41:32 +0000
X-Failed-Recipients: [email protected]
Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
From: Mail Delivery System <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:41:32 +0000

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

  [email protected]
    SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
    host mta6.am0.yahoodns.net [63.250.192.46]: 554 Message not allowed - Headers are not RFC compliant[291]

------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------

Return-path: <[email protected]>
Received: from d11dsa by zeus1.easy-internet.co.uk with local (Exim 4.82)
    (envelope-from <[email protected]>)
    id 1Xn7Ci-001cl4-9S
    for [email protected]; Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:41:29 +0000
To: [email protected]
Subject: 
X-PHP-Script: www.dsa.co.uk/eventmail.php for 2.218.47.72
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:41:28 +0000
From: DSACEvents <[email protected]>
Reply-To:  <[email protected]>
Subject: 
X-Priority: 3

Answer 1

Thanks for the reply and you're right. Here's what I eventually ended up with which works perfectly.

    function generateMessageID()
{
  return sprintf(
    "<%s.%s@%s>",
    base_convert(microtime(), 10, 36),
    base_convert(bin2hex(openssl_random_pseudo_bytes(8)), 16, 36),
    $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']
  );
}

        $headers = array();
$headers[] = "MIME-Version: 1.0";
$headers[] = "Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1";
$headers[] = "Mesaage-id: " .generateMessageID();
$headers[] = "From: 'DSAC Events' <$from>";
$headers[] = "Reply-To: $Arranger <$replyto>"; 
$headers[] = "Date: $date";
$headers[] = "Return-Path: <$from>";
$headers[] = "X-Priority: 3";//1 = High, 3 = Normal, 5 = Low
$headers[] = "X-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion();


mail($to, $subject, $message, implode("\r\n", $headers));

Answer 2

I had the same problems with yahoo. Only the double 'subject' was the problem. Great Job, works fine for me.

Answer 3

According to the error message, it seems Yahoo servers are rejecting email from your domain SMTP server. This can be caused by several reasons including the ones below:

• If there are no Message-ID or Date headers in the messages being sent by your program

• If the attachments do not follow the exact structure for that file type, these are also considered suspicious and hence quarantined, just in case they pose any form of threat.

• If the message has 2 subjects the mail can be rejected.