Hi all,

I have recently migrated my mail from courier-imap to dovecot. In doing so, I finally configured mutt to connect to imaps (SSL).

In the end I got it all working. I then sat back and thought: "I kinda don't understand the SSL/TLS part even though it works". And I hate setting stuff up and not truely understanding the mechanics of it.

So I started to write about it and am stuck. Can those that _understand_ mutt+ssl have a read of what I wrote to myself and give me your $00.02 worth (corrections etc).

Trying to explain mutt+ssl and getting it all wrong
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* mutt(with openssl support built in) initiates with a "SSL-Client-Hello" to SSL on port 993
  i.e. mutt's capabilities (algorithms, SSL version etc).

* dovecot:993 compares mutt's CipherSuites with its own. Of the CipherSuites mutt and dovecot
  have in common, dovecot:993 chooses the _most_ secure algorithm.

* Dovecot:993 will then tell mutt what it has decided to use and assigns a Unique session ID.
  From now on all communication is via this ID.

* Now that the CipherSuite is set between mutt and dovecot, dovecot sends its SSL certificate
  to mutt [/usr/local/share/dovecot/certs/dovecot.pem].
  mutt then uses dovecot's corresponding public key [/usr/local/share/dovecot/private/dovecot.pem]
  to verify that the ceritificate is authentic.

* once mutt has verified that the certificate is authentic

... and here I got unstuck.

Cheers

-aW

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