I am trying to install dovecot as a second pop3 service in my RH9 system.  It is a Cpanel based system using Courier for primary IP

By primary I mean all the other domains use courier on xxx.xxx.xxx.21 port 110

I have a domain with special pop3 needs that is dedicated to xxx.xxx.xxx.22  port 110

The two mail systems are installed, I can tell via telenet that dovecot is listening and responding on the desired IP and port

Cpanel is the tool being used by all domains to create mail accounts and hence setting the ‘policy’ for the mailboxes, userdb and passdb information.  I am trying to make dovecot use those files and can’t get past authentication.

What I guess I don’t know is the encryption type being used by Cpanel

Any help appreciated.!!!!

What Cpanel appears to do for authentication is use a passwd and shadow file for each domain, placed as follows:

/home/accountname/etc/domainname/passwd      holds the list of mail accounts names

/home/accountname/etc/domain/shadow             holds the passwords

This is the message log from a telnet session on local machine:

dovecot: Jul 22 13:45:27 Info: auth(default): client in: AUTH   1       PLAIN   service=POP3    secured lip=xxx.xxx.179.22       rip=xxx.xxx.179.22       resp=AGFsbGFuAHRlc3Q=

dovecot: Jul 22 13:45:27 Info: auth(default): shadow(allan,xxx.xxx.179.22): password mismatch

dovecot: Jul 22 13:45:29 Info: auth(default): client out: FAIL  1       user=allan

dovecot: Jul 22 13:45:36 Info: pop3-login: Aborted login: user=<allan>, method=PLAIN, rip=xxx.xxx.179.22, lip=xxx.xxx.179.22, secured

~

This was in the shadow file:

---Shadow file entry

allan:$1$V0lG6T6P$eNQoX3J3N5RJNxT5yH8gz1:::::::

These are my relevant (At least I think they are relevant) dovecot.conf settings:

disable_plaintext_auth = no

ssl_disable = yes

auth default {

  mechanisms = plain login anonymous

  passdb shadow { /home/xxxxxx/etc/xxxxx.com/shadow

  }

  userdb passwd-file {

    # Path for passwd-file

    args = /home/xxxxxxx/etc/xxxxx.com/passwd

  }

--PAM is commented out

As a side note, I tried to see if I could tell from the courier setup how it was authenticating. 

The courier/etc/pop3d file was set 

POP3AUTH=""

And there was a note “To advertise the SASL capability, per RFC 2449, uncomment the POP3AUTH variable”

So it this may indicate sasl is being used, what ever that means