Creating Dovecot Master users/passwords doesn't work
I've been cracking my head on this for hours. I want to create a master user that has access to all dovecot accounts. I've followed the tutorial on dovecot website, however, it still it either says "Authentication failed" or "Waiting for authentication process to respond" and it never works. What could I possibly be doing wrong here? Thanks
//dovecot.conf
# 2.0.16: /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE amd64
auth_master_user_separator = *
disable_plaintext_auth = no
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
namespace {
inbox = yes
location =
prefix = INBOX.
separator = .
type = private
}
passdb {
args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
driver = sql
}
passdb {
args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot/passwd.master
driver = passwd-file
master = yes
}
protocols = imap pop3
service auth {
client_limit = 6000
}
service imap {
process_limit = 2048
vsz_limit = 1256 M
}
service pop3 {
process_limit = 2048
}
userdb {
args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
driver = sql
}
userdb {
driver = passwd
}
protocol pop3 {
pop3_uidl_format = UID%u-%v
}
--> as instructed from http://wiki.dovecot.org/Authentication/MasterUsers
cat passwd.master
master:{SHA}E9RIKlmYWisBS3ObR16GwKUZNZg=
telnet localhost 143
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
a login loginuser*master mypassword
* OK Waiting for authentication process to respond..
* OK Waiting for authentication process to respond..
* BYE Disconnected for inactivity.
Connection closed by foreign host.
or
telnet localhost 143
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN
1 login loginuser*master mypassword
1 NO [AUTHENTICATIONFAILED] Authentication failed.
* BYE Disconnected for inactivity.
Connection closed by foreign host.
//dovecot -n
# 2.0.16: /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
# OS: FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE amd64
auth_master_user_separator = *
disable_plaintext_auth = no
login_greeting = CFI mail server ready.
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
namespace {
inbox = yes
location =
prefix = INBOX.
separator = .
type = private
}
passdb {
args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
driver = sql
}
passdb {
args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot/passwd.master
driver = passwd-file
master = yes
}
protocols = imap pop3
service auth {
client_limit = 6000
}
service imap {
process_limit = 2048
vsz_limit = 1256 M
}
service pop3 {
process_limit = 2048
}
userdb {
args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot-sql.conf
driver = sql
}
userdb {
driver = passwd
}
protocol pop3 {
pop3_uidl_format = UID%u-%v
}
Solution 1:
Finally got it work! First, I had to auth_master_user_separator = + instead of with *. This removed the complaint from dovecot that Username character disallowed by auth_username_chars: 0x2a (username: loginuser*master)
Then realized I was adding master password records using the htpasswd command to the wrong file /usr/local/etc/dovecot/dovecot.master yet in my configs it the right file is /usr/local/etc/dovecot/passwd.master. I don’t know how i failed to see that quickly.
Lastly I wasn’t testing the master user logins well using telnet. I was using 1 login loginuser+master mypassword instead of 1 login [email protected]+master mypassword
Lastly my configs in dovecot.conf look something like
auth_master_user_separator = +
#auth_username_chars = * #dovecot complains about the “*” character
auth_verbose = yes
auth_debug = yes
auth_debug_passwords = yes
passdb {
driver = passwd-file
args = /usr/local/etc/dovecot/passwd.master
master = yes
#pass = yes
}
passdb {
#driver = shadow
driver = pam
}
userdb {
driver = passwd
}