Special characters in ssmtp password

I have + and = characters in my gmail password. How can I configure ssmtp to avoid authorization error?

My /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf:

[email protected]
mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:465
rewriteDomain=gmail.com
AuthUser=username
AuthPass=1234+=5678
FromLineOverride=YES
UseTLS=YES
hostname=skynet

How do I run ssmtp:

$ echo "email content" | mail -s "email subject" [email protected]
send-mail: Authorization failed (535 5.7.1
http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?answer=14257
hz16sm4385885lab.6)

There are still a number of outstanding bugs dealing with special characters on the AuthPass line in the /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf file:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?repeatmerged=no&src=ssmtp#_0_3_4

These bug reports are specifically for the ssmtp page in Debian, but probably apply to others.

• Debian Bug report logs - #463196: ssmtp cannot parse AuthPass with '=' or ':' in it
• Debian Bug report logs - #768129: ssmtp: Same problem here with "#"

According to these report logs, lines containing the characters =, :, or # are either skipped entirely, or processed in a way that removes the part of password on the right-hand side these characters.

In other words, there is currently no way to "escape" these special characters on the AuthPass line.

As a side note, there are a number of devices, such as wireless home printers, that require passwords to be entered on a number pad, similar to those used on telephones. Some special characters are available on these devices, but many cannot be selected.

For situations like this, you are (unfortunately) forced to adjust your password for the device.

A longer password consisting of letters & numbers is preferred to a shorter one with more punctuation characters.

This question has also been asked and answered very well on the following page:

What characters are illegal in password in ssmtp.conf?

You can use the following workaround:

feed the password directly in the command line argument

ssmtp -ap "Hash#Password" ...

alternatively put the password in an environment variable.

ssmtp -ap $PASSWD ...

Hope it helped.