Localhost Dovecot server without ssl?
Hi all,
I'd like your opinions to add to my own opinion.
Bottom line question: If I trust everybody with physical access to my Daily Driver Desktop (DDD) computer, my Dovecot IMAP runs on my DDD, I access my Dovecot IMAP *exclusively* from my DDD, and I trust everybody with physical access to my DDD (that would be my wife), then if I serve out IMAP on localhost (127.0.0.1), am I being unduly risky using plain text auth (port 143)?
Details:
I use a Dovecot IMAP server, on my DDD, specifically to hold all my email messages. Therefore, I can use any IMAP aware email client, interchangeably, to view every email I've received since April 2001. People whose emails are held by their email clients are "locked in" to their email client unless they convert their email data. I can switch between Evolution and Claws-Mail, because one of the two is always doing something stupid. Bottom line: I use Dovecot IMAP exclusively to hold my emails and folders. Graphical description below:
ISP ---> My --------> procmail --> Dovecot IMAP fetchmail Maildir | | V email <--- Dovecot client IMAP server
For the time being, I don't need to access my Dovecot IMAP from any computer except my DDD, and therefore, I can serve Dovecot IMAP on 127.0.0.1.
So here's my question. Assuming (and I know this is a big assumption) I'm not worried about somebody gaining physical possession of my DDD, is there any reason not to use plain text to access this server?
Thanks,
SteveT
Steve Litt http://444domains.com
On 21/02/2026 17:39, Steve Litt via dovecot wrote:
Hi all, ...
For the time being, I don't need to access my Dovecot IMAP from any computer except my DDD, and therefore, I can serve Dovecot IMAP on 127.0.0.1.
So here's my question. Assuming (and I know this is a big assumption) I'm not worried about somebody gaining physical possession of my DDD, is there any reason not to use plain text to access this server?
Thanks,
SteveT
Steve Litt http://444domains.com
dovecot mailing list -- dovecot@dovecot.org To unsubscribe send an email to dovecot-leave@dovecot.org
Hi Steve
I am assuming that by "use plain text" you mean that you will use an unencrypted connection over 127.0.0.1 port 143 rather than you're intending to authenticate by plain text.
In general I do encrypt connections over localhost where possible, but it's just to be on the safe side. Having said that I think I have some things which are not encrypted, like the comunication between amavis and postfix, so I have accepted whatever risk there is in having unencrypted connnections in some cases.
If your DDD is connected to the network as I understood, then the risk is that someone will gain unauthorized access to it and will be able to access traffic over the loopback interface, even if the level of access they gained wasn't sufficient to access the email files. Of course if this potential attacker gained sufficient access, they could just read the files without having to sniff loopback traffic.
I suppose it boils down to how sure you are that your DDD is protected from unauthorized access and that encrypting the loopback traffic does mitigate something but does not help in all cases of unauthorized access.
Having said that I have seen cases of unauthorized access from the internet to what was supposed to be a PC exposed only on the internal network. This happened due to an ipv6 address which was not properly firewalled and was therefore visible externally. However, in the case I saw, the PC was totally compromised and encrypting loopback traffic would not have mitigated anything.
John
participants (2)
-
John Fawcett
-
Steve Litt