Mac OS Keychain with SMTP

[Paul Rankin]

Hello,

I'd like to eschew an .authinfo file in favour of the Mac OS Keychain
but can't seem to get it going. I keep receiving the error:

auth-source-macos-keychain-search: The MacOS Keychain auth-source
backend doesn't support creation yet

Some relevant excerpts from my init file:

'(auth-sources (quote (macos-keychain-internet macos-keychain-generic)))
'(smtpmail-smtp-server "mail.example.com")
'(smtpmail-smtp-service 465)
'(smtpmail-smtp-user "us...@example.com")
'(smtpmail-stream-type (quote ssl))
'(send-mail-function (quote smtpmail-send-it))

I have created an entry with Keychain Access in my default keychain with
the following:

Keychain Item Name: mail.example.com
Account Name: us...@example.com
Password: password12345

The following commands return the password:

$ security find-generic-password -l mail.example.com -a us...@example.com -w
=> password12345
$ security find-generic-password -s mail.example.com -a us...@example.com -w
=> password12345

However, if I eval

(auth-source-search :label "mail.example.com")
=> nil
(auth-source-search :server "mail.example.com")
= nil
(auth-source-search :label "mail.example.com" :user "us...@example.com")
=> nil

The Mac OS authorisation popup appears, but I can't tell whether it's
returning the password...

I have the `security` retrieval method working for OfflineIMAP using the
real Keychain entry, so it's not a user/password problem.

I'm happy to switch to another `send-mail-function`. If anyone has
working SMTP email with Mac OS Keychain auth I would love some pointers :)

Many thanks,

--
Paul W. Rankin
http://www.paulwrankin.com

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[Ted Zlatanov]

On Tue, 25 Nov 2014 15:15:15 +1000 Paul Rankin <pa...@tilk.co> wrote:

PR> I'd like to eschew an .authinfo file in favour of the Mac OS Keychain
PR> but can't seem to get it going. I keep receiving the error:

PR> auth-source-macos-keychain-search: The MacOS Keychain auth-source
PR> backend doesn't support creation yet

Please see Emacs bug#19074: Bug in auth-source.el's search of OS X
Keychain at https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2014-11/msg00805.html

There's a patch there which I haven't been able to test. If you could,
please try it and let me know your experience (in the bug thread or
here). You will have to pre-create your security tokens in the Mac
OS X, since creating them through auth-source.el is not supported yet.

Thanks
Ted

[Paul Rankin]

I applied the patch and can now successfully use SMTP with a password
without an .authinfo file.

One further problem I had was that `auth-source.el` seems to always
query `security` with a port number, and I hadn't added a port number to
the keychain item in question, so, in Keychain Access.app

Where: smtp://mail.example.com:465

fixed the problem.

This is probably a silly question, but if I don't want to mess with my
Emacs distribution, I should just put the patched version of
`auth-source-macos-keychain-search-items` into my init file right?

[Ted Zlatanov]

On Wed, 26 Nov 2014 15:56:26 +1000 Paul Rankin <pa...@tilk.co> wrote:

PR> Ted Zlatanov <t...@lifelogs.com> writes:

>> On Tue, 25 Nov 2014 15:15:15 +1000 Paul Rankin <pa...@tilk.co> wrote:
>>
PR> I'd like to eschew an .authinfo file in favour of the Mac OS Keychain
PR> but can't seem to get it going. I keep receiving the error:
>>
PR> auth-source-macos-keychain-search: The MacOS Keychain auth-source
PR> backend doesn't support creation yet
>>
>> Please see Emacs bug#19074: Bug in auth-source.el's search of OS X
>> Keychain at https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2014-11/msg00805.html
>>
>> There's a patch there which I haven't been able to test. If you could,
>> please try it and let me know your experience (in the bug thread or
>> here). You will have to pre-create your security tokens in the Mac
>> OS X, since creating them through auth-source.el is not supported yet.

PR> I applied the patch and can now successfully use SMTP with a password
PR> without an .authinfo file.

Cool. Would you like to update the auth.texi manual to help fellow Mac
OS X users with some guidelines and the note below?

PR> One further problem I had was that `auth-source.el` seems to always
PR> query `security` with a port number, and I hadn't added a port number to
PR> the keychain item in question, so, in Keychain Access.app

PR> Where: smtp://mail.example.com:465

PR> fixed the problem.

Great!

PR> This is probably a silly question, but if I don't want to mess with my
PR> Emacs distribution, I should just put the patched version of
PR> `auth-source-macos-keychain-search-items` into my init file right?

Yes, temporarily. I will apply that patch soon to emacs-24 and it will
get forward-ported to master as well.

Ted

[Paul Rankin]

Ted Zlatanov <t...@lifelogs.com> writes:

>>> Please see Emacs bug#19074: Bug in auth-source.el's search of OS X
>>> Keychain at https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-emacs/2014-11/msg00805.html
>>>
>>> There's a patch there which I haven't been able to test. If you could,
>>> please try it and let me know your experience (in the bug thread or
>>> here). You will have to pre-create your security tokens in the Mac
>>> OS X, since creating them through auth-source.el is not supported yet.
>
> PR> I applied the patch and can now successfully use SMTP with a password
> PR> without an .authinfo file.
>
> Cool. Would you like to update the auth.texi manual to help fellow Mac
> OS X users with some guidelines and the note below?
>
> PR> One further problem I had was that `auth-source.el` seems to always
> PR> query `security` with a port number, and I hadn't added a port number to
> PR> the keychain item in question, so, in Keychain Access.app
>
> PR> Where: smtp://mail.example.com:465
>
> PR> fixed the problem.
>
> Great!

I have perhaps found a related bug.

When:

'(auth-sources (quote (macos-keychain-internet)))

and attempting to join a channel in erc, then I get the looping error:

error in process filter: erc-channel-receive-names: Wrong type argument: hash-table-p, nil
error in process filter: Wrong type argument: hash-table-p, nil

When:

'(auth-sources (quote ("~/.authinfo" macos-keychain-internet)))

then everything works as expected.

[Paul Rankin]

Paul Rankin <pa...@tilk.co> writes:

> I have perhaps found a related bug.
>
> When:
>
> '(auth-sources (quote (macos-keychain-internet)))
>
> and attempting to join a channel in erc, then I get the looping error:
>
> error in process filter: erc-channel-receive-names: Wrong type argument: hash-table-p, nil
> error in process filter: Wrong type argument: hash-table-p, nil
>
> When:
>
> '(auth-sources (quote ("~/.authinfo" macos-keychain-internet)))
>
> then everything works as expected.

p.s. In above I do not have a ~/.authinfo file in either case.