[Dovecot] 1.0rc7 - dumb question

[Anand Buddhdev]

On Thursday 14 September 2006 21:13, Odhiambo WASHINGTON wrote:

Hi Wash,

> Hi John,
>
> Let me understand this correctly.
>
> You're saying IMAPS will work with a setting such as below??
>
>   auth default {
>   mechanisms = digest-md5
>   passdb pam {
>        args = *
>              }
>   userdb passwd {
>        args = /etc/master.passwd
>              }
>
> If yes, then I am inclined to ask why POP3S would not work with the
> same.
>
> Sorry, questions still dumb ;)

The above can't work (for POP or IMAP). For the DIGEST-MD5 auth 
mechanism to work, Dovecot needs access to the plain text password. 
However, the password is stored in an encrypted form 
in /etc/master.passwd. With encrypted password in /etc/master.passwd, 
you can only use the PLAIN mechanism.

What John was saying is that since the password has to be transmitted in 
the clear for PLAIN, it's better to use transport-level security, ie. 
IMAPS and POP3S.

--
Anand