dovecot - Jul 2006 - pop3 authentication problems: Still got 'em...

Fellow users,

	This is just a heads-up to let the list know that I'm still unable to get
ANY sort of pop3 or pop3s authentication to work with Dovecot.

	Just as a sanity check, I set up an entirely separate system, running FreeBSD
6.1 production, postfix 2.3, and Dovecot 1.0rc2, as a testbed. I got the exact
same problem that I had with the NetBSD 3.0 production server, specifically that
Dovecot refuses to authenticate a user with either basic pop3 or pop3s.

	The way I see it, I may as well try to get basic pop3 working first. If it
doesn't, pop3s will never work.

	This first quote is taken from the mail client (Pegasus) trying to establish a
regular, unencrypted pop3 session.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[*] Connection established to 192.168.42.80
>> 0058 +OK AVG POP3 Proxy Server 7.1.368/7.1.394 [268.10.1/389]
<< 0013 USER kyrrin
>> 0005 +OK
<< 0016 PASS XXXXXXXXX
>> 0029 -ERR Authentication failed.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

	As you can see, the user ID of 'kyrrin' is getting passed as just that,
and Dovecot at least seems to recognize it. I say this as a prefix to the next
log clip, which will be the corresponding entry from /var/log/maillog, in which
the user name is being presented (for whatever reason) in FQDN format.

	Note that pam was added just as an experiment. It failed too, despite the
presence of a 'dovecot' file, containing the following, in /etc/pam.d

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

pioneer# cat /etc/pam.d/dovecot
auth    required        pam_unix.so nullok
account required        pam_unix.so
pioneer#

-=-==-=-=-=-=-

	This would be the /var/log/maillog entry corresponding to the above-referenced
Pegasus session.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Jul 16 11:24:38 pioneer dovecot: auth(default): client in: AUTH 1       PLAIN  
service=POP3    lip=192.168.42.80rip=192.168.42.40      
resp=AGt5cnJpbgBocDIxZHZlbTcJul 16 11:24:38 pioneer dovecot: auth(default):
pam(kyrrin at bluefeathertech.com,192.168.42.40): pam_authenticate() failed:
authentication error
Jul 16 11:24:38 pioneer dovecot: auth(default): cache(kyrrin at
bluefeathertech.com,192.168.42.40): User unknown
Jul 16 11:24:40 pioneer dovecot: auth(default): client out: FAIL        1      
user=kyrrin at bluefeathertech.com
Jul 16 11:24:49 pioneer dovecot: pop3-login: Aborted login: user=<kyrrin at
bluefeathertech.com>, method=PLAIN, rip=192.168.42.40, lip=192.168.42.80

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

	This next bit is the auth default section of my dovecot.conf file. Other
sections, or the entire file, can be posted upon request.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

auth default {
  # Space separated list of wanted authentication mechanisms:
  #   plain login digest-md5 cram-md5 ntlm rpa apop anonymous gssapi
mechanisms = plain login
        passdb pam {
        }
        passdb passwd {
        }
        userdb passwd {
        }
        socket listen {
        client {
        path = /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
        mode = 0660
        user = postfix
        group = postfix
                }
        }
}

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

	I've posted a similar note to bsdforums, in the hope that someone there is
(successfully) using Dovecot with pop3 and pop3s.

	Thanks in advance for any assistance. I'm really starting to get seriously
upset about this, enough to give thought to qpopper over Dovecot.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with
surreal ports?"

On Sun, 16 Jul 2006 11:33:53 -0700
"Bruce Lane" <kyrrin at bluefeathertech.com> wrote:
> 	This is just a heads-up to let the list know that I'm still
> unable to get ANY sort of pop3 or pop3s authentication to work with
> Dovecot.
> 
> 	Just as a sanity check, I set up an entirely separate system,
> running FreeBSD 6.1 production, postfix 2.3, and Dovecot 1.0rc2, as a
> testbed. I got the exact same problem that I had with the NetBSD 3.0
> production server, specifically that Dovecot refuses to authenticate
> a user with either basic pop3 or pop3s.
i'm using FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE on a mailserver with
dovecot (dovecot-1.0.b7_1 from ports) and a mysql-db without any
problems (pop3s and imaps)

earlier i had FreeBSD 5.4 working fine with dovecot using regular
"unix-style" password-files

maybe i missed earlier emails from you, but is there a certain reason
you want to use pam-auth only (with 1.0rc2) ?

On July 16, 2006 11:33:53 AM -0700 Bruce Lane <kyrrin at
bluefeathertech.com> wrote:
> [*] Connection established to 192.168.42.80
>>> 0058 +OK AVG POP3 Proxy Server 7.1.368/7.1.394 [268.10.1/389]
What's all that about.  Is that the dovecot banner?  My dovecot simply
responds:

+OK Dovecot Ready.

Is your client system configured to use a proxy?  If so, it seems it
is mangling the username.

-frank