[courier-users] SMTP Authentication Problem

Aldisa Admin

unread,

Dec 22, 2006, 6:07:31 PM12/22/06

to

--===============0377503331==
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
Hello, 
 
I am using FreeBSD 6.1 with following setup: 
 
courier-0.53.2     
Courier SMTP IMAP POP3 HTTP mail server suite 
courier-authlib-base-0.58_2 Courier authentication library base 
courier-authlib-userdb-0.58_2 Userdb support for the Courier
authentication library 
 
I have two problems that I need assistance with: 
 
1.  I am using Thunderbird mail client and setup SMTP with
authentication.  When I send a message it takes quite long for it to go
through.  The server logs are as follows: 
 
Dec 22 17:13:28 server courieresmtpd: started,ip=[xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] 
Dec 22 17:13:29 server courieresmtpd:
error,relay=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx,msg="535 Authentication failed.",cmd:
YWJpZCBlNDU2YTJkYWUwZjNhMzFjNGViMTEyMGMyMTc2ODJlYg== 
Dec 22 17:13:37 server courierd: newmsg,id=0024A81C.458C5891.000097C8:
dns; [192.168.2.30] (my.domain.name.tld [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]) 
Dec 22 17:13:37 server courierd:
started,id=0024A81C.458C5891.000097C8,from=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:m...@my.tld"><m...@my.tld></a>,module=esmtp,host=gmail.com,addr=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:som...@gmail.com"><som...@gmail.com></a> 
Dec 22 17:13:37 server courierd: Waiting.  shutdown time=none, wakeup
time=none, queuedelivering=1, inprogress=1 
Dec 22 17:13:37 server courieresmtp:
id=0024A81C.458C5891.000097C8,from=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:m...@my.tld"><m...@my.tld></a>,addr=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:som...@gmail.com"><som...@gmail.com></a>:
250 2.0.0 OK 1166825605 e14si3746237qba 
Dec 22 17:13:37 server courieresmtp:
id=0024A81C.458C5891.000097C8,from=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:m...@my.tld"><m...@my.tld></a>,addr=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:som...@gmail.com"><som...@gmail.com></a>,size=516,success:
delivered: gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [72.14.205.27] 
Dec 22 17:13:37 server courieresmtp:
id=0024A81C.458C5891.000097C8,from=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:m...@my.tld"><m...@my.tld></a>,addr=<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:som...@gmail.com"><som...@gmail.com></a>,size=516,status:
success 
Dec 22 17:13:37 server courierd: completed,id=0024A81C.458C5891.000097C8 
Dec 22 17:13:37 server courierd: Waiting.  shutdown time=Fri Dec 22
17:21:24 2006, wakeup time=Fri Dec 22 17:21:24 2006, queuedelivering=0,
inprogress=0 
 
I can't figure out what is causing the authentication error, as the
email eventually goes through without any further action on my part. 
 
2.  I would like to change to the default logging options.  Currently
each and every pop login gets written to my maillog file.  I would
prefer to have this written to a different file.  I setup an entry in
my syslog.conf: 
 
pop3d.*    /var/log/pop3dlog 
 
But this didn't switch over the logging.  I'm guessing that I need to
alter something in one of the courier config files?  If so, any
guidance would be greatly appreciated. 
 
Thanks in advance for any and all help. 
 
Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays to all. 
 
Abid 

</body>
</html>

--===============0377503331==
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV
--===============0377503331==
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

_______________________________________________
courier-users mailing list
courie...@lists.sourceforge.net
Unsubscribe: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users

--===============0377503331==--

Gordon Messmer

unread,

Dec 22, 2006, 6:25:54 PM12/22/06

to

Aldisa Admin wrote:
>
> 1. I am using Thunderbird mail client and setup SMTP with
> authentication. When I send a message it takes quite long for it to go
> through. The server logs are as follows:

>
> Dec 22 17:13:28 server courieresmtpd: started,ip=[xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]

> Dec 22 17:13:29 server courieresmtpd:
> error,relay=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx,msg="535 Authentication failed.",cmd:
> YWJpZCBlNDU2YTJkYWUwZjNhMzFjNGViMTEyMGMyMTc2ODJlYg==

You've probably enabled an authentication method that you don't support.
Maybe CRAM-MD5, without the plain-text password in your userdb?
Unless you're going to add the plain-text password, you'll need to turn
off the CRAM-* methods, and just use LOGIN.

> 2. I would like to change to the default logging options. Currently
> each and every pop login gets written to my maillog file. I would
> prefer to have this written to a different file. I setup an entry in my
> syslog.conf:
>
> pop3d.* /var/log/pop3dlog

Yeah, you can't do that. The "facility" field isn't free-form. There's
no such thing as a "pop3d" facility. Read the man page for syslogd.

You can probably do what you want if you run syslog-ng, but the
configuration is fairly complex.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV

Sam Varshavchik

unread,

Dec 22, 2006, 9:51:44 PM12/22/06

to

This is a MIME-formatted message. If you see this text it means that your
E-mail software does not support MIME-formatted messages.

--===============1143076086==
Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1;
protocol="application/pgp-signature";
boundary="=_commodore.email-scan.com-318-1166842254-0001-2"

This is a MIME-formatted message. If you see this text it means that your
E-mail software does not support MIME-formatted messages.

--=_commodore.email-scan.com-318-1166842254-0001-2
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="UTF-8"
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Mime-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by mimegpg

Aldisa Admin writes:

> I have two problems that I need assistance with:

>=20
> 1.=C2=A0 I am using Thunderbird mail client and setup SMTP with=20
> authentication.=C2=A0 When I send a message it takes quite long for it =
to go=20
> through.=C2=A0 The server logs are as follows:
>=20
> Dec 22 17:13:28 server courieresmtpd: started,ip=3D[xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
> Dec 22 17:13:29 server courieresmtpd: error,relay=3Dxxx.xxx.xxx.xxx,msg=
=3D"535=20
> Authentication failed.",cmd:=20
> YWJpZCBlNDU2YTJkYWUwZjNhMzFjNGViMTEyMGMyMTc2ODJlYg=3D=3D
> Dec 22 17:13:37 server courierd: newmsg,id=3D0024A81C.458C5891.000097C8=
:=20

> I can't figure out what is causing the authentication error, as the ema=
il=20

> eventually goes through without any further action on my part.

You may not be required to authenticate in the first place, from your IP=20
address, so you can proceed to send mail, unauthenticated.

You may not be able to authenticate either because you did not supply the=20
correct userid/password, or you've enabled CRAM authentication, but you a=
re=20
storing encrypted passwords. CRAM authentication requires cleartext=20
passwords.

--=_commodore.email-scan.com-318-1166842254-0001-2
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQBFjJmMx9p3GYHlUOIRApfhAJ0R5aNOqIB12BF50L7WhTmXlHrYIgCaAgjs
gqt+wV5Lw1na0XxzRRg5HO0=
=eoll
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--=_commodore.email-scan.com-318-1166842254-0001-2--

--===============1143076086==

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV

--===============1143076086==

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

_______________________________________________

courier-users mailing list
courie...@lists.sourceforge.net
Unsubscribe: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users

--===============1143076086==--

Aldisa Admin

unread,

Dec 22, 2006, 11:17:24 PM12/22/06

to

--===============0645720159==

Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">

</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">

Thank you for your advice gentlemen. 
 
I removed the CRAM authentication method from esmtpd.  This has
eliminated the authentication error from the log file. 
 
However, there is still a substantial delay in submitting messages to
the server from Thunderbird.  For example, it takes less than one
second to submit a message to Gmail remote SMTP.  Gmail uses port 587
for remote message submission with authentication.  I have tried to
submit to submit to Courier on 587 and 25, and am experiencing a delay
of anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds for the server to accept the message. 
I have checked server response and network latency through various
methods (ping, http, pop3), and it is in the milliseconds.  So, there
is no reason for a short test message to take 5 to 10 seconds for
transmission.  There is nothing in the server logs to indicate that
anything unusual is happening. 
 
Some additional info: 
1.  Authdaemon is setup for only two processes - as my server is only
used by a maximum of two people at any one time. 
2.  Daily mail throughput would less 200 to 300 messages per day!! 
3.  I do not have any local IP addresses setup in smptaccess except for
the default localhost, so authentication is required to RELAY. 
 
Would appreciate any and all advice and guidance to troubleshoot and
debug this issue. 
 
Thanks. 
 
Abid 
 
Sam Varshavchik wrote:
<blockquote
cite="midcone.116684225...@commodore.email-scan.com"
type="cite">Aldisa Admin writes: 
 
<blockquote type="cite">I have two problems that I need assistance
with:
 
 
1.  I am using Thunderbird mail client and setup SMTP with
authentication.  When I send a message it takes quite long for it to go
through.  The server logs are as follows:
 
 
Dec 22 17:13:28 server courieresmtpd: started,ip=[xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]

Dec 22 17:13:29 server courieresmtpd:

error,relay=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx,msg="535 Authentication failed.",cmd:
YWJpZCBlNDU2YTJkYWUwZjNhMzFjNGViMTEyMGMyMTc2ODJlYg==

Dec 22 17:13:37 server courierd: newmsg,id=0024A81C.458C5891.000097C8: </blockquote>
 
<blockquote type="cite">I can't figure out what is causing the
authentication error, as the email eventually goes through without any

further action on my part.

</blockquote>

You may not be required to authenticate in the first place, from your

IP address, so you can proceed to send mail, unauthenticated.

You may not be able to authenticate either because you did not supply

the correct userid/password, or you've enabled CRAM authentication, but
you are storing encrypted passwords.  CRAM authentication requires
cleartext passwords. 
 
</blockquote>
 
Gordon Messmer wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid458C69...@eburg.com" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Aldisa Admin wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">1. I am using Thunderbird mail client and setup SMTP with
authentication. When I send a message it takes quite long for it to go
through. The server logs are as follows:

Dec 22 17:13:28 server courieresmtpd: started,ip=[xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]

Dec 22 17:13:29 server courieresmtpd:

error,relay=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx,msg="535 Authentication failed.",cmd:
YWJpZCBlNDU2YTJkYWUwZjNhMzFjNGViMTEyMGMyMTc2ODJlYg==

</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">

You've probably enabled an authentication method that you don't support.
Maybe CRAM-MD5, without the plain-text password in your userdb?
Unless you're going to add the plain-text password, you'll need to turn
off the CRAM-* methods, and just use LOGIN.

</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">2. I would like to change to the default logging options. Currently

each and every pop login gets written to my maillog file. I would
prefer to have this written to a different file. I setup an entry in my
syslog.conf:

pop3d.* /var/log/pop3dlog
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">

Yeah, you can't do that. The "facility" field isn't free-form. There's
no such thing as a "pop3d" facility. Read the man page for syslogd.

You can probably do what you want if you run syslog-ng, but the
configuration is fairly complex.

</pre>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>

--===============0645720159==

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV

--===============0645720159==

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

_______________________________________________
courier-users mailing list
courie...@lists.sourceforge.net
Unsubscribe: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users

--===============0645720159==--

Sam Varshavchik

unread,

Dec 23, 2006, 8:11:32 AM12/23/06

to

This is a MIME-formatted message. If you see this text it means that your
E-mail software does not support MIME-formatted messages.

--===============0976430632==

Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1;
protocol="application/pgp-signature";

boundary="=_commodore.email-scan.com-8793-1166879441-0001-2"

This is a MIME-formatted message. If you see this text it means that your
E-mail software does not support MIME-formatted messages.

--=_commodore.email-scan.com-8793-1166879441-0001-2

Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="UTF-8"
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Mime-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by mimegpg

Aldisa Admin writes:

> Thank you for your advice gentlemen.

>=20
> I removed the CRAM authentication method from esmtpd.=C2=A0 This has el=
iminated=20

> the authentication error from the log file.

>=20
> However, there is still a substantial delay in submitting messages to t=
he=20
> server from Thunderbird.=C2=A0 For example, it takes less than one seco=
nd to=20
> submit a message to Gmail remote SMTP.=C2=A0 Gmail uses port 587 for re=
mote=20
> message submission with authentication.=C2=A0 I have tried to submit to =
submit=20
> to Courier on 587 and 25, and am experiencing a delay of anywhere from =
5=20

> to 10 seconds for the server to accept the message.

Check forward/reverse DNS resolution.

--=_commodore.email-scan.com-8793-1166879441-0001-2
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQBFjSrNx9p3GYHlUOIRAmL5AJ4jRl8fqh7ozsHfDQBjnkIt/WxFFgCfcJr+
66nCnhC5rSuhADc3EcPSixw=
=I0Uh
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--=_commodore.email-scan.com-8793-1166879441-0001-2--

--===============0976430632==

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV

--===============0976430632==

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

_______________________________________________
courier-users mailing list
courie...@lists.sourceforge.net
Unsubscribe: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users

--===============0976430632==--

Alessandro Vesely

unread,

Dec 23, 2006, 8:54:43 PM12/23/06

to

Aldisa Admin wrote:
>
> I have checked server response and network latency through various methods

> (ping, http, pop3), and it is in the milliseconds. So, there is no

> reason for a short test message to take 5 to 10 seconds for

> transmission. There is nothing in the server logs to indicate that
> anything unusual is happening.

Did you check DNS/Identd lookups?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV

Aldisa Admin

unread,

Dec 28, 2006, 4:47:12 PM12/28/06

to

It seems the delay in submitting message is due to reverse lookup of my intranet ip address which is not resolvable. I was able to eliminate the delay by setting TCPDOPTS to -nodnslookup and -noidentlookup in esmtpd. However, I don't want to disable it globally and would prefer to set these options just for my local subnet and specific ip addresses. It is not clear from the documentation whether I can do this selectively in the smtpaccess file. If so, would the syntax be:

my.sub.net<tab>-nodnslookup -noidentlookup

and makesmtpaccess??

Thanks in advance for your clarification.

Abid

Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> Aldisa Admin writes:
>
>> Thank you for your advice gentlemen.
>>

>> I removed the CRAM authentication method from esmtpd. This has
>> eliminated the authentication error from the log file.

>>
>> However, there is still a substantial delay in submitting messages to

>> the server from Thunderbird. For example, it takes less than one
>> second to submit a message to Gmail remote SMTP. Gmail uses port 587
>> for remote message submission with authentication. I have tried to
>> submit to submit to Courier on 587 and 25, and am experiencing a delay
>> of anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds for the server to accept the message.
>
> Check forward/reverse DNS resolution.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
> Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
> opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash
> http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV
>
>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sam Varshavchik

unread,

Dec 28, 2006, 6:17:42 PM12/28/06

to

This is a MIME GnuPG-signed message. If you see this text, it means that
your E-mail or Usenet software does not support MIME signed messages.
The Internet standard for MIME PGP messages, RFC 2015, was published in 1996.
To open this message correctly you will need to install E-mail or Usenet
software that supports modern Internet standards.

--===============0890922951==
Content-Type: multipart/signed;
boundary="=_mimegpg-commodore.email-scan.com-12780-1167347801-0002";
micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"

This is a MIME GnuPG-signed message. If you see this text, it means that
your E-mail or Usenet software does not support MIME signed messages.
The Internet standard for MIME PGP messages, RFC 2015, was published in 1996.
To open this message correctly you will need to install E-mail or Usenet
software that supports modern Internet standards.

--=_mimegpg-commodore.email-scan.com-12780-1167347801-0002
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Aldisa Admin writes:

> It seems the delay in submitting message is due to reverse lookup of my
> intranet ip address which is not resolvable. I was able to eliminate the
> delay by setting TCPDOPTS to -nodnslookup and -noidentlookup in esmtpd.
> However, I don't want to disable it globally and would prefer to set these
> options just for my local subnet and specific ip addresses. It is not
> clear from the documentation whether I can do this selectively in the
> smtpaccess file. If so, would the syntax be:
>
> my.sub.net<tab>-nodnslookup -noidentlookup
>
> and makesmtpaccess??

No. These are global flags that cannot be set on a per-IP address basis.

--=_mimegpg-commodore.email-scan.com-12780-1167347801-0002
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQBFlFBZx9p3GYHlUOIRAkTzAJoCuGlBLyvh/ssi322x0YxkNdSCmACeKVPC
z+sk89RsZYNtdGewEFBtYLk=
=Qb+X
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--=_mimegpg-commodore.email-scan.com-12780-1167347801-0002--

--===============0890922951==

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV

--===============0890922951==

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

_______________________________________________

courier-users mailing list
courie...@lists.sourceforge.net
Unsubscribe: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/courier-users

--===============0890922951==--