dovecot - Feb 2008 - Passwordless Login Auth

I have Dovecot 1.0.5 running imaps successfully with Postfix on
Ubuntu.  Authorization is by SASL.  Currently, my mail client (mutt)
requests a password to access my folders.

I would like to configure Dovecot so that a user logged into the
localhost (i.e., already authenticated) does not receive the password
prompt.  Remote logins should of course demand the authentication, but
if I'm logged into the server via SSH, for example, I'd like to be
able to run mutt without the password prompt.  Is this a viable
proposition?

Here is a relevant snippet from dovecot.conf:

auth default {
     mechanisms = plain login
     passdb pam {
		}
		userdb passwd {
		}
		socket listen {
		client {
		       path = /var/spool/postfix/private/auth
		       mode = 0660
		       user = postfix
		       group = postfix
		       }
		}
	}

TIA

-- 
JL <lists at jorge.cc>

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008, JL wrote:
> I have Dovecot 1.0.5 running imaps successfully with Postfix on Ubuntu. 
> Authorization is by SASL.  Currently, my mail client (mutt) requests a 
> password to access my folders.
>
> I would like to configure Dovecot so that a user logged into the 
> localhost (i.e., already authenticated) does not receive the password 
> prompt.  Remote logins should of course demand the authentication, but 
> if I'm logged into the server via SSH, for example, I'd like to be
able
> to run mutt without the password prompt.  Is this a viable proposition?
Does your IMAP client support just talking to the IMAP server on a 
pipe?  Alpine/PINE does, and that's what I use.

Just tell it to talk to the program "/usr/sbin/dovecot --exec-mail
imap"
as the IMAP server, and you'll be preauthenticated.

The only issue with this approach is that dovecot.conf needs to be 
readable by the users will execute it directly.

-- Asheesh.

-- 
The most important early product on the way to developing a good product
is an imperfect version.