Re: Unable to get Dovecot 2.4 to allow unencrypted connection

David Koski via dovecot <[email protected]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 08:58:54 -0700
Newsgroups gmane.mail.imap.dovecot
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Well, not so fast.  It only captures the localhost telnet session, not 
the remote Outlook IMAP access.  It is completely silent on that.  Now what?
David

On 4/23/26 8:37 AM, David Koski via dovecot wrote:
> Excellent. That did it, thanks!
> David
>
> On 4/22/26 10:40 PM, Aki Tuomi via dovecot wrote:
>> 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
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>>>>
>>>> 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/
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