Hi Ruud
sorry, maybe it was too long and not that clear. What I am saying is that even if you have userPassword in your configuration, the error message for that particular error will always state the attribute in lower case. It is pointless to look for some configuration error containing userpassword since the attribute name userPassword will also generate that error you see.
But that gets no closer to understanding why the error is generated in the first place, especially considering that the authentication works anyway.
John
What is not clear to me
On 04/02/2026 21:29, Ruud Baart via dovecot wrote:
I'm tired. I have been working many hours now. So it may be that I don't quite understand you correctly. The conclusion I draw from these responsen is that there is something strange going on that I can't do anything about. Dovecot seems to be working fine on my server, so I'm not immediately concerned.
I checked the exact spelling of the attributes I use. It is as follows. In the ldif dump: mailBase, mailMessageStore, dovecotQuota, mailDeliveryAddress and userPassword. And indeed, only userPassword gives an error.
Op 4-2-2026 om 19:54 schreef John Fawcett via dovecot:
Hi Ruud
I think that message "No such attribute 'userpassword' " is being produced because the attribute name userPassword in your configuration is being lower cased by Dovecot and the lower case name is being used by Dovecot both in the check for existence of the attribute and in the error messager. (see t_str_lcase call in code below).
That can also explain why the error still happens even when you change your configuration to use the attribute name userpassword, because that is in any case the value that Dovecot uses internally when checking for the existence of the attribute. If so, you can rule out the line of enquiry of searching for extraneous userpassword attributes in your configuration.
It's still a mystery to me why the existence check went wrong for %{[1]ldap:userPassword} but not for other attributes in your configuration like %{[2]ldap:mailDeliveryaddress}, assuming of course that the latter isn't really called maildeliveryaddress in your schema, which seems unlikely. Maybe Aki has some more insight.
source code file: auth/db-ldap.c
static int db_ldap_field_multi_expand(const char *data, const char **value_r, void *context, const char **error_r) { struct db_ldap_field_expand_context *ctx = context; struct auth_fields *fields = ctx->fields; const char *field_name = t_str_lcase(data);
const char *value = auth_fields_find(fields, db_ldap_attribute_as_multi(field_name)); if (value == NULL || *value == '\0') value = auth_fields_find(fields, field_name);
if (value == NULL || *value == '\0') { *error_r = t_strdup_printf("No such attribute '%s'", field_name); return -1; } *value_r = value; return 0; }
John
On 04/02/2026 15:29, Ruud Baart via dovecot wrote:
Still nobody knows the answer?
In fact it is strange because LDAP attributes are case insensitive. Further If I change in the LDAP config
passdb ldap { ... fields { ... password = %{[3]ldap:userPassword} } }
in
passdb ldap { ... fields { ... password = %{[4]ldap:userpassword} } }
the logins are still OK but the error in the logfile remains the same.
Op 3-2-2026 om 14:45 schreef Ruud Baart via dovecot:
You mean verify with doveconf? Same result
doveconf |grep -i userpassword password = %{[5]ldap:userPassword}
Op 3-2-2026 om 14:08 schreef Aki Tuomi via dovecot:
I ment in your 2.4.1 config
Aki
On 03/02/2026 14:44 EET Ruud Baart via dovecot [6]<dovecot@dovecot.org> wrote:
Don't think so
/etc/dovecot/conf.d# grep -H userpassword * /etc/dovecot/conf.d# grep -H userPassword * auth-ldap.conf.ext: password = %{[7]ldap:userPassword}
Op 3-2-2026 om 13:35 schreef Aki Tuomi via dovecot:
Could it be that you have
'userpassword' instead of 'userPassword' in your config?
Aki
On 03/02/2026 13:21 EET Ruud Baart via dovecot [8]<dovecot@dovecot.org> wrote:
Dovecot 2.4.1 works fine on my Debian Trixie server. I use LDAP as backend for the users.
I don't have problems. Authentication works fine. However logging show every time the following line:
auth-worker(<user name@domain,::1)<109040><3v5ddOlJvrgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB>: request [7]: Error: ldap: auth_passdb_post settings: Failed to parse configuration: Failed to expand passdb_fields/password setting variables: ldap: No such attribute 'userpassword'
The LDAP authentication works correct. So I don't understand this message.
My correct working LDAP configuration in auth-ldap.conf.ext:
passdb ldap { passdb_use_worker = yes passdb_ldap_filter = (&(objectClass=PromptMailUser)(accountStatus=TRUE)(mailDeliveryaddress=%{user})) ldap_bind = yes fields { user = %{[9]ldap:mailDeliveryaddress} password = %{[10]ldap:userPassword} } }
userdb ldap { userdb_use_worker = yes userdb_ldap_filter = (&(objectClass=PromptMailUser)(accountStatus=TRUE)(mailDeliveryaddress=%{user})) fields { home = %{[11]ldap:mailBase} mail = %{[12]ldap:mailMessageStore} mail_path = %{[13]ldap:mailMessageStore} quota_storage_size = %{[14]ldap:dovecotQuota} } }
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* Don't think so
/etc/dovecot/conf.d# grep -H userpassword * /etc/dovecot/conf.d# grep -H userPassword * auth-ldap.conf.ext: password = %{[1][19]ldap:userPassword}
Op 3-2-2026 om 13:35 schreef Aki Tuomi via dovecot:
Could it be that you have
'userpassword' instead of 'userPassword' in your config?
Aki
On 03/02/2026 13:21 EET Ruud Baart via dovecot [2][20]<dovecot@dovecot.org> wrote:
Dovecot 2.4.1 works fine on my Debian Trixie server. I use LDAP as backend for the users.
I don't have problems. Authentication works fine. However logging show every time the following line:
auth-worker(<user name@domain,::1)<109040><3v5ddOlJvrgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB>: request [7]: Error: ldap: auth_passdb_post settings: Failed to parse configuration: Failed to expand passdb_fields/password setting variables: ldap: No such attribute 'userpassword'
The LDAP authentication works correct. So I don't understand this message.
My correct working LDAP configuration in auth-ldap.conf.ext:
passdb ldap { passdb_use_worker = yes passdb_ldap_filter = (&(objectClass=PromptMailUser)(accountStatus=TRUE)(mailDeliveryaddress=%{user})) ldap_bind = yes fields { user = %{[3][21]ldap:mailDeliveryaddress} password = %{[4][22]ldap:userPassword} } }
userdb ldap { userdb_use_worker = yes userdb_ldap_filter = (&(objectClass=PromptMailUser)(accountStatus=TRUE)(mailDeliveryaddress=%{user})) fields { home = %{[5][23]ldap:mailBase} mail = %{[6][24]ldap:mailMessageStore} mail_path = %{[7][25]ldap:mailMessageStore} quota_storage_size = %{[8][26]ldap:dovecotQuota} } }
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