February 2025 - dovecot

Problem email client iPhone ios18.2
by andrzej.milewski＠gmail.com 17 Apr '25

17 Apr '25

Hello, I have a fairly new installation of the Dovecot server version 2.3.19.1 on Debian 12.8. In general, the server works correctly. It sends and receives emails without issues. The clients primarily use Thunderbird on desktops and Gmail on Android. However, some clients are using iPhones with various hardware versions. Those with iOS below version 18 work correctly without any issues. Those who have updated their phones to version 18 and now even 18.2 are experiencing problems with mailbox synchronization. On version 18.2, the issue appears as follows: When you open the app, you can read several messages. They load correctly, but, for instance, attachments do not. If I wait for some time, the attachment eventually loads. During this time, I observe the server logs, and it shows that a certain session on the Dovecot server has ended. Dec 17 13:13:01 iredmail0 dovecot[408]: imap(xxx(a)xxx.com)<44785><1QGZCHcp/+3AqM2O>: Disconnected: Connection closed (UID SEARCH finished 92.295 secs ago) in=2972 out=6076956 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=0 hdr_bytes=0 body_count=36 body_bytes=6059064 Dec 18 08:40:41 iredmail0 dovecot[408]: imap(xxx(a)xxx.com)<177412>: Disconnected: Connection closed (UID FETCH finished 90.079 secs ago) in=5126 out=1304237 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=94 hdr_bytes=289688 body_count=89 body_bytes=969615 Dec 18 08:42:19 iredmail0 dovecot[408]: imap(xxx(a)xxx.com)<177410><D5mqU4cpZ+nAqM2O>: Disconnected: Connection closed (UID FETCH finished 95.051 secs ago) in=4475 out=1162785 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=95 hdr_bytes=281674 body_count=61 body_bytes=839545 Dec 18 08:44:17 iredmail0 dovecot[408]: imap(edyta.kowalewska(a)laktopol.com.pl)<177918>: Disconnected: Connection closed (UID FETCH finished 92.132 secs ago) in=29399 out=30266644 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=565 hdr_bytes=1726228 body_count=628 body_bytes=28109455 After the session is closed, the attachment loads immediately. From the logs and router analysis, it appears that the download happens in another previously opened session. After this incident, I go to another message with an attachment, and the situation repeats. There are also situations where the email body does not load, and the app waits for the server until the session closes and the content is fetched in another session. It does not matter whether I connect to the server via the internet or through a local network. On an iPhone 7 with iOS 15.8.3, everything works smoothly. Attachments open without issues. On iOS 18.1.1, attachments do not load, and the session does not close on its own. It takes forever unless the app is closed. In the Gmail app, everything works correctly without any issues. This is clearly a problem with the mail client on iPhone. However, is there anything I can adjust in my server settings to mitigate this issue for users? My dovecot configuration https://pastebin.com/UPNQ5dZz

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Stats-writer permission denied
by Ken Wright 15 Apr '25

15 Apr '25

I've got a new Dovecot error (well, new to me, at least)! I ran tail /var/log/mail.err and got the following: net_connect_unix(/var/run/dovecot/stats-writer) failed: Permission denied I checked the file, and it's owned by www-data and the www-data group, with read and write permissions for owner and group... just like I have specified in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-master.conf. I can't understand why permission is denied when the file permissions appear to be correct. Can anyone shed any light on this for me? Ubuntu 20.04 Dovecot 2.3.7.2 Ken

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[Dovecot] auth: Error: net_connect_unix(anvil-auth-penalty) failed: Permission denied
by mailing＠securitylabs.it 03 Apr '25

03 Apr '25

Hello, just upgraded one of my testing machine from dovecot 1.2.15 to 2.0.7. After some trouble with permissions now all seems working, but when I stop dovecot I have these errors in log: Nov 9 17:08:07 in dovecot: master: Warning: Killed with signal 15 (by pid=20362 uid=0 code=kill) Nov 9 17:08:07 in dovecot: pop3-login: Error: read(anvil) failed: EOF Nov 9 17:08:07 in dovecot: imap-login: Error: read(anvil) failed: EOF Nov 9 17:08:07 in dovecot: imap(mailing(a)securitylabs.it): Server shutting down. bytes=410/59361 Nov 9 17:08:07 in dovecot: imap(mailing(a)securitylabs.it): Server shutting down. bytes=79/26605 Nov 9 17:08:07 in dovecot: imap(mailing(a)securitylabs.it): Server shutting down. bytes=802/55708 Nov 9 17:08:07 in dovecot: imap(mailing(a)securitylabs.it): Server shutting down. bytes=258/1242 Nov 9 17:08:07 in dovecot: auth: Error: read(anvil-auth-penalty) failed: EOF Nov 9 17:08:07 in dovecot: auth: Error: net_connect_unix(anvil-auth-penalty) failed: Permission denied dovecot -n: # 2.0.7: /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf # OS: Linux 2.6.32-5-xen-686 i686 Debian squeeze/sid auth_cache_negative_ttl = 2 mins auth_cache_size = 1000 M auth_cache_ttl = 2 mins auth_master_user_separator = * auth_username_chars = abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ01234567890.-_@& disable_plaintext_auth = no dotlock_use_excl = yes first_valid_uid = 100 last_valid_uid = 105 lock_method = dotlock log_timestamp = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S " login_greeting = Server ready. mail_fsync = never mail_gid = Debian-exim mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir:INDEX=/var/indexes/%d/%n mail_privileged_group = Debian-exim mail_uid = Debian-exim managesieve_notify_capability = mailto managesieve_sieve_capability = fileinto reject envelope encoded-character vacation subaddress comparator-i;ascii-numeric relational regex imap4flags copy include variables body enotify environment mailbox date namespace { inbox = yes location = prefix = separator = / type = private } namespace { location = maildir:~/Maildir/expunged prefix = EXPUNGED/ separator = / type = private } namespace { location = maildir:~/Maildir/deleted prefix = DELETED/ separator = / type = private } namespace { location = maildir:~/Maildir/deleted/expunged prefix = DELETED/EXPUNGED/ separator = / type = private } passdb { args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf driver = sql } passdb { args = /usr/local/etc/passwd.masterusers driver = passwd-file master = yes pass = yes } plugin { lazy_expunge = EXPUNGED/ DELETED/ DELETED/EXPUNGED/ mail_log_events = delete expunge mail_log_group_events = quota = maildir quota_warning = storage=80%% /usr/local/bin/dovecot-quota-warning.sh 80 quota_warning2 = storage=90%% /usr/local/bin/dovecot-quota-warning.sh 90 sieve = ~/.dovecot.sieve } pop3_no_flag_updates = yes protocols = imap pop3 service auth { unix_listener auth-userdb { group = Debian-exim mode = 0600 user = Debian-exim } } service imap-login { client_limit = 256 process_limit = 128 process_min_avail = 3 service_count = 1 } service imap { drop_priv_before_exec = yes process_limit = 256 vsz_limit = 256 B } service pop3-login { client_limit = 256 process_limit = 128 process_min_avail = 3 service_count = 1 } service pop3 { drop_priv_before_exec = yes process_limit = 256 vsz_limit = 256 B } ssl_cert = </usr/local/etc/dovecot.crt ssl_key = </usr/local/etc/dovecot.key userdb { args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot-sql.conf driver = sql } protocol imap { mail_max_userip_connections = 10 mail_plugins = " notify quota imap_quota mail_log lazy_expunge" } protocol pop3 { mail_max_userip_connections = 3 mail_plugins = " notify quota mail_log" pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv } protocol lda { mail_plugins = quota sieve postmaster_address = postmaster(a)securitylabs.it } My /usr/local/var/run/dovecot directory: 4 drwxr-sr-x 4 root staff 4096 Nov 9 17:08 . 4 drwxrwsrwx 3 root staff 4096 Nov 9 17:05 .. 0 srw------- 1 root staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 anvil 0 srw------- 1 root staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 anvil-auth-penalty 0 srw------- 1 root staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 auth-client 0 srw------- 1 dovecot staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 auth-login 0 srw------- 1 root staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 auth-master 0 srw------- 1 Debian-exim Debian-exim 0 Nov 9 17:05 auth-userdb 0 srw------- 1 dovecot staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 auth-worker 0 srw------- 1 root staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 config 0 srw------- 1 root staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 dict 0 srw------- 1 root staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 director-admin 0 srw-rw-rw- 1 root staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 dns-client 0 srw------- 1 root staff 0 Nov 9 17:05 doveadm-server 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root staff 35 Nov 9 17:05 dovecot.conf -> /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 9 17:05 empty 4 drwxr-x--- 2 root dovenull 4096 Nov 9 17:05 login My emails are delivered as user Debian-exim and users are virtual in a MySQL DB. This system is behind a proxy (so the master user)

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Dovecot 2.4.0 local_name wildcard matching regression
by Julius Kriukas 19 Mar '25

19 Mar '25

Hi, Using a wildcard host name in the `local_name` filter no longer works in Dovecot 2.4.0. This is useful for wildcard certificates. Example `dovecot.conf`: ``` ssl_server_cert_file = /etc/dovecot/global.cert ssl_server_key_file = /etc/dovecot/global.key ssl_server_dh_file = /etc/dovecot/dh.pem ... local_name "*.example.com" { ssl_server_cert_file = /etc/dovecot/example.com.cert ssl_server_key_file = /etc/dovecot/example.com.key } local_name "example.com" { ssl_server_cert_file = /etc/dovecot/example.com.cert ssl_server_key_file = /etc/dovecot/example.com.key } ``` The configuration is tested with: ``` openssl s_client -connect mail.example.com:993 openssl s_client -connect example.com:993 ``` The first connection to mail.example.com fails because Dovecot uses the default `global.cert` file. The second test with the exact host name match works as expected. Dovecot uses the `example.com.cert` file. Similar to the previously reported multiple hosts on the same line discrepancy, it seems that the `doveconf` tool still has the wildcard matching support: ``` # doveconf -f local_name=mail.example.com ssl_server ssl_server { cert_file = /etc/dovecot/example.com.cert dh_file = /etc/dovecot/dh.pem key_file = /etc/dovecot/example.com.key } ``` Is there a new way to achieve the wildcard matching behaviour of the local_name filter in Dovecot 2.4.0? Thanks. -- Julius Kriukas

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Bug: Logout counters reset after recreating hibernated process
by Eirik Rye 12 Mar '25

12 Mar '25

Hello, # dovecot --version 2.3.20 (80a5ac675d) When using hibernation (`imap_hibernate_timeout = 10s`), counters such as deleted/expunged messages, appear to be reset after the user process is recreated. Steps to reproduce: 1. Configure IMAP hibernation 2. Login with IMAP client 3. Delete+expunge a message 4. IDLE, and wait 10s for process to be hibernated 5. Unhibernate process (`DONE`), and log out 6. Observe the logged line: 2023-09-05T17:36:26+0200 imap(<redacted>)<776933><jA2nYJ4EPdcqAVtAAADwAAutur4AAAAB>: Info: Disconnected: Logged out in=9 out=88 deleted=0 expunged=0 trashed=0 hdr_count=0 hdr_bytes=0 body_count=0 body_bytes=0 The expected output is "deleted=1 expunged=1", not "deleted=0 expunged=0". If you follow the steps above, but skip the IDLE/hibernate step, the output is as expected. Interestingly, if the client is disconnected during hibernation (without recreating the process), the output from `imap-hibernate` is still as expected: 2023-09-05T17:45:15+0200 imap-hibernate(<redacted>)<770540><0qE0gJ4Emt8qAVtAAADwAAutur4AAAAB>: Info: Disconnected: Connection closed in=97 out=1020 deleted=1 expunged=1 trashed=0 hdr_count=0 hdr_bytes=0 body_count=0 body_bytes=0 This leads me to believe the counters are lost during process recreation, not during hibernation. This is an issue as customers will often come to us asking why messages have disappeared in their inbox, or asking for help to identify which client is expunging messages. Right now, this information is lost if hibernation is used and the client is hibernated after expunging. Best regards, Eirik Rye

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2.4 crashing on macOS with time moving forward?
by John Muccigrosso 02 Mar '25

02 Mar '25

After last week's struggle with the new version and my conf file, I got everything working. Now however dovecot crashes on me every few hours. The logs show a bunch of this kind of warning, which I find mention of on the internets: > Feb 07 15:13:47 imap(58317): Warning: Time moved forward 48.803640 seconds > Feb 07 16:30:27 master: Warning: Time moved forward by 694.039203 seconds - adjusting timeouts. > Feb 07 16:52:47 imap(61246): Warning: Time moved forward 293.443011 seconds > Feb 07 16:52:47 master: Warning: Time moved forward by 1279.423507 seconds - adjusting timeouts. > Feb 07 17:25:39 imap(61286): Warning: Time moved forward 1942.575589 seconds > Feb 07 17:25:39 imap(61288): Warning: Time moved forward 172.563346 seconds > Feb 07 17:25:39 master: Warning: Time moved forward by 1912.666999 seconds - adjusting timeouts. > Feb 07 17:49:32 imap(61286): Warning: Time moved forward 1402.761862 seconds > Feb 07 17:51:13 master: Warning: Time moved forward by 1473.582569 seconds - adjusting timeouts. > Feb 07 17:51:13 imap(61286): Warning: Time moved forward 70.823888 seconds > Feb 07 17:53:07 master: Warning: Time moved forward by 53.843767 seconds - adjusting timeouts. > Feb 07 18:44:22 imap(61286): Warning: Time moved forward 1386.259444 seconds > Feb 07 19:11:41 master: Warning: Time moved forward by 615.609964 seconds - adjusting timeouts. Note the very large jump dovecot claims is happening in all of these, up to half an hour, with a minimum of 48 seconds in this bunch. You can see that it even does a pair of these in rapid succession, like at 17:25:39 above, and will do >10 within the space of an hour. These seem eventually to be followed by a crash ("eventually" because I'm running this on my laptop which isn't always open and running). The crash log entries all start with something like this: > Feb 07 16:17:53 imap(58315): Panic: file ./time-util.h: line 40 (timeval_add_usecs): assertion failed: (usecs >= 0) The reports will end with one of these: > Feb 06 17:45:07 log(48089): Warning: Killed with signal 15 (by pid=1 uid=0 code=unknown 0) > Feb 07 16:17:53 imap(58317): Fatal: master: service(imap): child 58317 killed with signal 6 (core dumps disabled - https://dovecot.org/bugreport.html#coredumps) One more detail, I usually do `sudo brew services start dovecot` to run dovecot and this results in the crashes. When I was testing this on Saturday, I started it with `sudo dovecot -F` instead, so that I would see problems in the terminal. It went all day without crashing and I finally stopped and restarted it with the brew method. That's not a rigorous test, but it is suggestive. Happy to provide more info, but I'm hoping this is sufficient to suggest a course of action. dovecot 2.4.0 installed via homebrew macOS 13.6.9 J

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Pigeonhole: sieve_redirect_envelope_from orig_recipient results in mail bombs
by doobry 28 Feb '25

28 Feb '25

Dear Dovecot community, we changed `sieve_redirect_envelope_from` to `orig_recipient` recently to fix sieve redirects in case the forwarded mail comes from a DMARC-enabled domain. While this works well, it creates a new problem: if the receiving mail server (the one in charge of the redirect destination) reacts with a bounce mail, the bounce now will go to `orig_recipient` - the mail address that has the redirect in place, which means no less than creating a mail bomb (endless mail loop). See the following example: 1. alice(a)sender.org sends mail to jane(a)our-domain.org 2. jane(a)our-domain.org has a sieve redirect to jane(a)redirect-target.org 3. jane(a)redirect-target.org replies with a bounce because their mailbox is full. 4. The bounce mail gets sent to jane(a)our-domain.org. 5. The loop starts again at step 2. Is it possible to configure dovecot/pigeonhole to *not* forward the bounce mails from step 4 again? Probably it would work to add manual extra checks to the sieve redirect rules, but that would need to be followed by any user who configures a redirect. So I'm more looking for a server-wide configuration change that fixes this problem. Looking forward to hear about your thoughts on the problem. Kind regards doobry

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Dovecot 2.4.0 multiple hosts SNI configuration regression
by Julius Kriukas 27 Feb '25

27 Feb '25

Hello everyone. We are testing out Dovecot 2.4.0 and noticed a regression in how the `local_name` filter with multiple space-separated host names works. For example, having the following dovecot.conf: ``` ... ssl_server_cert_file = /etc/dovecot/global.cert ssl_server_key_file = /etc/dovecot/global.key ssl_server_dh_file = /etc/dovecot/dh.pem ... local_name "server.example.com mail.example.com" { ssl_server_cert_file = /etc/dovecot/example.com.cert ssl_server_key_file = /etc/dovecot/example.com.key } local_name "good.example.org" { ssl_server_cert_file = /etc/dovecot/example.org.cert ssl_server_key_file = /etc/dovecot/example.org.key } ... ``` Connection to server.example.com:993 (with SNI support) does not work as expected. The global certificate from the `global.cert` file is used, and validation fails. However, connection to good.example.org:993 (with SNI support) works fine. The `example.org.cert` file is used. The `doveconf` tool thinks the example configuration should work, hinting that this is likely to be a bug. Example: ``` # doveconf -f local_name=mail.example.com ssl_server ssl_server { cert_file = /etc/dovecot/example.com.cert dh_file = /etc/dovecot/dh.pem key_file = /etc/dovecot/example.com.key } ``` The results show correct file paths, but the `dovecot` server is not using them. Any confirmation if this is really a bug, or maybe an intended configuration syntax change (to force repeating the local_name blocks for each hostname) would be really appreciated. Thanks. -- Julius

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Issue with ACLs in Dovecot 2.4
by Andrea Gabellini 27 Feb '25

27 Feb '25

Hi, I'm trying to migrate my setup to Dovecot 2.4, but I'm experiencing an unusual issue with ACLs. After multiple tests, I’ve stripped the configuration down to the bare minimum to pinpoint the root cause of the problem. Basically, if I set "owner lr" as the permissions for a folder, I am unable to move any messages, yet I can still create subfolders. Here’s the relevant configuration: ini Copia Modifica protocol imap { mail_plugins { acl = yes } } acl_driver = vfile acl_globals_only = yes namespace inbox { inbox = yes separator = / mailbox Test { acl owner { rights = lr } } } Am I missing any configuration, or have I encountered a bug? Thanks, Andrea -- TIM San Marino S.p.A. Andrea Gabellini Engineering R&D TIM San Marino S.p.A. - https://www.telecomitalia.sm Via Ventotto Luglio, 212 - Piano -2 47893 - Borgo Maggiore - Republic of San Marino Tel: (+378) 0549 886237 Fax: (+378) 0549 886188 -- Informativa Privacy Questa email ha per destinatari dei contatti presenti negli archivi di TIM San Marino S.p.A.. Tutte le informazioni vengono trattate e tutelate nel rispetto della normativa vigente sulla protezione dei dati personali (Reg. EU 2016/679). Per richiedere informazioni e/o variazioni e/o la cancellazione dei vostri dati presenti nei nostri archivi potete inviare una email a privacy(a)telecomitalia.sm. Avviso di Riservatezza Il contenuto di questa e-mail e degli eventuali allegati e' strettamente confidenziale e destinato alla/e persona/e a cui e' indirizzato. Se avete ricevuto per errore questa e-mail, vi preghiamo di segnalarcelo immediatamente e di cancellarla dal vostro computer. E' fatto divieto di copiare e divulgare il contenuto di questa e-mail. Ogni utilizzo abusivo delle informazioni qui contenute da parte di persone terze o comunque non indicate nella presente e-mail potra' essere perseguito ai sensi di legge.

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Strange problem with iPhone Mail
by Simon Hoffmann 27 Feb '25

27 Feb '25

Hey list, I am experiencing a strange problem where I don't even know where to begin to debug. I am running my own email server in my office. The server itself works fine. In my office firewall, I have set up DNAT/port forwarding to be able to access the server from outside. With my Android phone and my iPad I have no problems accessing the mails from anywhere, including my home WiFi. However with my iPhone, I have problems accessing my inbox when I am on my home WiFi. The problems only started a few weeks ago, it worked fine for years before. I have not changed any network related settings. Now, when I am on my home WiFi, I cannot use the "pull down to refresh" gesture. It just is not fetching any emails. The automatic sync/fetching is also not fetching the newest emails. Eventually, some emails will come through, but they are from ~6-7 hours ago. Same WiFi as my other devices that work fine. As soon as I disable WiFi on my iPhone and switch to mobile data and do the "pull down to refresh" gesture, all mails from the last 6-7 hours immediately come in. Has anyone ever experienced something like this and can help me analyse the problem? root@mx01:~# uname -a Linux mx01 5.10.0-33-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.226-1 (2024-10-03) x86_64 GNU/Linux root@mx01:~# cat /etc/os-release PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)" NAME="Debian GNU/Linux" VERSION_ID="11" VERSION="11 (bullseye)" VERSION_CODENAME=bullseye ID=debian HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/" SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support" BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/" root@mx01:~# dpkg -l dovecot* ||/ Name Version Architektur Beschreibung +++-======================-========================-============-=============================================== un dovecot-abi-2.3.abiv13 <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) un dovecot-common <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) ii dovecot-core 1:2.3.13+dfsg1-2+deb11u2 amd64 secure POP3/IMAP server - core files un dovecot-gssapi <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) ii dovecot-imapd 1:2.3.13+dfsg1-2+deb11u2 amd64 secure POP3/IMAP server - IMAP daemon un dovecot-ldap <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) ii dovecot-lmtpd 1:2.3.13+dfsg1-2+deb11u2 amd64 secure POP3/IMAP server - LMTP server un dovecot-lucene <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) ii dovecot-managesieved 1:2.3.13+dfsg1-2+deb11u2 amd64 secure POP3/IMAP server - ManageSieve server un dovecot-mysql <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) un dovecot-pgsql <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) un dovecot-pop3d <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) ii dovecot-sieve 1:2.3.13+dfsg1-2+deb11u2 amd64 secure POP3/IMAP server - Sieve filters support un dovecot-solr <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) un dovecot-sqlite <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) un dovecot-submissiond <keine> <keine> (keine Beschreibung vorhanden) Thanks! Cheers, Simon

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