Re: Unable to get Dovecot 2.4 to allow unencrypted connection

Use post-login rawlogs. 

rawlog_dir = %{home}/rawlogs

then make the rawlogs directory with mode 0777, and when you want to stop rawlogging, either remove the directory, or make it unwritable to dovecot mail process.

Aki

> On 23/04/2026 02:51 EEST David Koski via dovecot <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>  
> Hello,
> 
> I am able to get Pre-login Rawlog to log to 
> /var/run/dovecot/login/rawlogs as per:
> 
> https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.3/core/admin/rawlog.html
> 
> But this only works with a telnet session locally.  Outlook does 
> nothing.  I can see the encrypted traffic in ngrep, however. Nothing is 
> logged to the rawlog using Outlook, only with telnet.
> 
> Also, it logs no IMAP commands after login.  Note that this telnet 
> session is local so it allows plain text.  The section "rawlog Binary" 
> says rawlog_dir is preferred???  Not sure how it will allow me to log 
> IMAP commands other than pre-login.  But I gave it a shot and got no 
> output to %{home}/rawlog in spite of creating the directory.  No error 
> seen in any dovecot log with debugging enabled.  No indication of a 
> problem with journalctl.  I tried to remove the "-R" from "exectuable = 
> imap-login -R rawlogs" with no discernible change in outcome.  I see 
> this option document nowhere and it seems superfluous.
> 
> Also note that in the "Pre-login Rawlog" section it says: "SSL/TLS 
> sessions are currently not decrypted to rawlogs".  It seems ambiguous as 
> it implies no logging is decrypted.
> 
> All I really want to do is see the IMAP commands when accessing dovecot 
> from a host not on the local network to troubleshoot Outlook 
> interactions with dovecot.  I have no option for having Outlook on the 
> same network as dovecot with this deployment.  ngrep would be great if 
> only dovecot would allow unencrypted IMAP.
> 
> Regards,
> David Koski
> [email protected]
> 
> David Koski
> [email protected]
> 
> On 4/21/26 1:10 AM, David via dovecot wrote:
> >     Hello,
> >     I don't know about actually fully disabling SSL requirements but I do know
> >     that dovecot supports logging everything in an IMAP session if that would
> >     also help.
> >     [1]https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.3/core/admin/rawlog.html
> >     [2]https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.3/core/summaries/settings.html#rawlog_dir
> >     Best,
> >     David
> >     On 2026-04-21, 01:44 David Koski via dovecot <dovecot@[3]dovecot.org>
> >     wrote:
> >
> >       Hello,
> >
> >       In spite of:
> >
> >       ssl = no
> >       auth_allow_cleartext = yes
> >
> >       ..in a telnet session, I get:
> >
> >       * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE
> >       LITERAL+ STARTTLS LOGINDISABLED AUTH=GSSAPI AUTH=CRAM-MD5] Dovecot
> >       (Debian) ready.
> >       a1 login ln@[4]zample.com <super-secret>
> >       * BAD [ALERT] Plaintext authentication not allowed without SSL/TLS, but
> >       your client did it anyway. If anyone was listening, the password was
> >       exposed.
> >       a1 NO [PRIVACYREQUIRED] Plaintext authentication disallowed on
> >       non-secure (SSL/TLS) connections.
> >
> >       I need to see the network traffic to troubleshoot the way Outlook 2019
> >       handles IMAP folders.
> >
> >       Regards,
> >       David Koski
> >       dkoski@[5]sutinen.com
> >
> >       _______________________________________________
> >       dovecot mailing list -- dovecot@[6]dovecot.org
> >       To unsubscribe send an email to dovecot-leave@[7]dovecot.org
> >
> > References
> >
> >     Visible links
> >     1. https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.3/core/admin/rawlog.html
> >     2. https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.3/core/summaries/settings.html#rawlog_dir
> >     3. http://dovecot.org/
> >     4. http://zample.com/
> >     5. http://sutinen.com/
> >     6. http://dovecot.org/
> >     7. http://dovecot.org/
> > _______________________________________________
> > dovecot mailing list -- [email protected]
> > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
> 
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