Linux Mail Retrieval software

• imap4 - University of Washington
  • WU IMAP Server Source Distribution Documentation - Imap server which ships with Red Hat distro - [Info]
• Cyrus - CMU IMAP server which does not require system user accounts.

Prerequisites:

It is assumed that the system has:

1. Networking requirements configured: IP address, routing, internet connectivity, etc. See the YoLinux networking tutorial for maore information.
2. DNS MX records defining the mail server. See the YoLinux DNS/bind configuration tutorial
3. An appropriate MTA mail server installed such as sendmail. See the YoLinux Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) server software and sendmail configuration tutorial.

Older Red Hat systems came with the University of Washington (WU) release of POP and IMAP. Current Fedora Core, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (4), CentOS (4) Linux distributions are shipped with Dovecot IMAP and POP. Both configurations are covered here:

• Dovecot POP server configuration: (Fedora Core, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, CentOS 4)
• WU-POP server configuration: (Older Red Hat - pre 9.0)

Required RPM packages: dovecot, postgresql-libs
See YoLinux Systems Administration tutorial on RPM and YUM package management.

Dovecot configuration file: /etc/dovecot.conf

protocols = pop3 - Change only this line. Rest of file stays as default (FC3) imap_listen = [::] pop3_listen = [::] imaps_listen = [::] pop3s_listen = [::] ssl_cert_file = /usr/share/ssl/certs/dovecot.pem ssl_key_file = /usr/share/ssl/private/dovecot.pem login_dir = /var/run/dovecot-login login = pop3 mbox_locks = fcntl auth = default auth_mechanisms = plain auth_userdb = passwd auth_passdb = pam auth_user = root

[Potential Pitfall]: Dovecot upgrade where directive mail_extra_groups = mail is depricated. Substitute: mail_privileged_group = mail

Dovecot was written by a security guru to be unpenetrible by hackers. Dovecot supports both Unix mbox and Maildir formats.

Start "dovecot" service: service dovecot start
See YoLinux tutorial on Linux services and system init process to configure dovecot to start upon system boot.

Links:

• Dovecot

This POP configuration tutorial is specific to the ipopd/imap University of Washington release which ships with Red Hat 6-9.

Typically POP is controlled by the xinetd (Red Hat 7.x) or inet (Red Hat 5.x,6.x) daemon. To activate the POP system, the service must be available as follows:

• The network port must be defined for POP in the /etc/services file:

  pop3 110/tcp pop-3 # POP version 3 pop3 110/udp pop-3

  Note that some ot the other pop servers require that the service be named pop3 and NOT pop-3 as used here by the U of Washingto pop3d server. Both names are defined here.

• inet/xinetd configuration:
  • xinetd (Red Hat 7.x): The service is defined by the file: /etc/xinetd.d/ipop3.
    To turn the service on:
    • Edit the line and change from the default:

      disable = yes

      TO:

      disable = no

      OR
    • Execute the command: chkconfig ipop3 on
      This command also restarts the xinetd process.

  • inetd (Red Hat 6.x and older): The service must be defined in the /etc/inetd.conf file:

    pop-3 stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd ipop3d

    By default, the RedHat installation may have a "#" at the beginning of the line to comment out the definition. Remove the "#" to define the service.

• Restart the inet daemon to re-read the configuration file and enable the service.
  • xinetd (Red Hat 7.x):

        /etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd restart
        

  • inetd (Red Hat 6.x and older):

        /etc/rc.d/init.d/inet restart
        

By default the user login and password are the same as the system login and password. This configuration is generally a bad idea as all the text is transfered over the network in clear text (not encrypted) The idea gets even worse when you think that this basic configuration uses system login and passwords which match the pop3 login and password. The login (mailtest) and password (supersecret) are clearly visible. Check out the tcp stream captured below:

Alternate Authentication - APOP: Using a CRAM-MD5 data file.

Taking the following steps to create the CRAM-MD5 authentication database file:

1. touch /etc/cram-md5.pwd
2. chmod 0600 /etc/cram-md5.pwd : Password are held in the file as plain ascii text, thus protect file from unauthorized viewers.
3. Add to the file a user entry of the form: user-id <TAB> password
   Lines begining with the character '#' are considered comments.

For each user in the /etc/cram-md5.pwd file, there must also be an entry in the /etc/passwd file. The password used by ipop3d will be the password held in this CRAM-MD5 data file and not the system login password. While they can be the same I recomend that the user have no system login password assigned but assign an ipop3 password in the file /etc/cram-md5.pwd. Also note the following EtherReal packet sniffing session listening in on the exchange between Netscape Messenger and ipop3d (U Washington). The authentication of login and password are NOT clear text!!

• A system user must still be added for every e-mail user. (Use the useradd command.)
• The mere presence of the file /etc/cram-md5.pwd and its contents turns on this APOP authentication feature. Nothing else needs to be configured for ipop3d to enter this mode.
• No browser settings in Netscape Communicator/Messenger are required to invoke CRAM-MD5 authentication. It is strictly a server configuration which is negotiated with the client.
• Once in this authentication mode the browser will assume encryption. I ran a test where I deleted the /etc/cram-md5.pwd file and packet sniffed the tcp stream for a regular system user. The login/password exchange was still encrypted! I then pointed my browser to my ISP which uses clear text and the authentication sceme reverted to clear text and stayed in this mode when going back to the regular user on my server. The only way to get the system to invoke the encryption mode was to revert back to using CRAM-MD5 authentication.

• University of Washington IMAP home page

WU-IMAP configuration: (Red Hat 6-9)

Typically IMAP are controlled by the inet daemon. To activate the IMAP system, the service must be available as follows:

• The network port must be defined in the /etc/services file:

  imap2 143/tcp imap # Interim Mail Access Proto v2 imap2 143/udp imap

• inet / xinetd configuration:
  • xinetd (Red Hat 7.x): The service is defined by the file: /etc/xinetd.d/imap. To turn the service on, edit the line and change from the default:

    disable = yes

    TO:

    disable = no

  • inetd (Red Hat 6.x and older): The service must be defined in the /etc/inetd.conf file:

    imap stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd imapd

    By default, the RedHat installation may have a "#" at the beginning of the line to comment out the definition. Remove the "#" to define the service.

• Restart the inet daemon to re-read the configuration file and enable the service.
  • xinetd (Red Hat 7.x):

        /etc/rc.d/init.d/xinetd restart
        

  • inetd (Red Hat 6.x and older):

        /etc/rc.d/init.d/inet restart
        

• Mail recieved by the MTA sendmail, is held in the directory/file: /var/spool/mail/system-user-id
  All mail is held in a single file in "Mail Box" format.
• RSA private key and certificate: /usr/share/ssl/certs/imapd.pem

• Popper: webmail POP client
• SSL and imapd - Excellent coverage of current U of Washington imap-2000 release distributed with Red Hat 7.1 - by Shane Chen
• CA (Computer Associates) eTrust Antivirus

• RFC 1939 - POP V3 - Post Office Protocol
• RFC 2449 - POP3 Extension Mechanism
• RFC 1957 - POP3 - Observations on Implementations

• RFC 2060 - IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol - Version 4rev1
• RFC 1733 - Distributed Electronic Mail Models in IMAP4
• RFC 2180 - IMAP4 Multi-Accessed Mailbox Practice.

Books:

"IMAP" by Dianna Mullet, Kevin Mullet ISBN #059600012X, O'Reilly & Associates