Re: smtp authentication fails

On Mon, 3 Dec 2007, Marc Greene wrote:
> Chris Wilson wrote:
> > Hi Marc,
> >
> > On Mon, 3 Dec 2007, Marc Greene wrote:
> >
> >> Hi, I'm having trouble getting pine to authenticate properly to the
> >> smtp server given by my email provider. The settings I was given
> >> (copied from http://lavabit.com/settings.html) are:
> > [...]
> >> So, in my pine configuration settings, I have:
> >>
> >> user-domain = lavabit.com
> >> smtp-server  = lavabit.com/user=marc
> >>
> >> In my .pinerc, I also have this:
> >>
> >> # List of SASL authenticators to disable.
> >> disable-these-authenticators=
> >>
> >> The value is blank.
> >>
> >> Yet, when I try to send an email with these settings, I first get the
> >> screen that says:
> >>
> >> There was a failure validating the SSL/TLS certificate for the server
> >>                 lavabit.com
> >> The reason for the failure was
> >>                 unable to get local issuer certificate (details)
> > [...]
> >> So I exit this, and am returned to the previous screen where it gives
> >> me the option to continue sending the message anyway, but when I
> >> do this it gives me this error:
> >>
> >> Error sending: Can not authenticate to SMTP server: 501 Invalid
> >> AUTH command.
> >
> > Probably Pine is refusing to use SSL because it can't verify the
> > certificate, and tries to authenticate without SSL, which lavabit refuses.
> >
> > Try adding /ssl/novalidate-cert to your smtp-server. It's less secure
> > (risk of password theft if the remote server is spoofed) but may get
> > things working for you.
> >
> > Cheers, Chris
>
> Thanks for the reply Chris. I tried using the following variations in my
> smtp-server setting:
>
> smtp-server = lavabit.com/ssl/novalidate-cert/user=marc
> smtp-server = lavabit.com:465/ssl/novalidate-cert/user=marc
>
> Both still give me the same 501 Invalid AUTH command error, so I don't
> think that's the issue. Plus the lavabit settings page clearly states that
> the server supports the LOGIN and PLAIN authentication methods, and
> I'm able to send out mail with thunderbird without using SSL.
>
> I wonder if or how thunderbird is able to validate the certificate, and
> at least send out mail through lavabit.com, and why pine can't.

I doubt Pine is the problem or Thunderbird is validating any
certificate. However, if Thunderbird is validating the certificate,
the certificate has been loaded into Thunderbird, whether you know
it or not - Windoozz does that.

It may be necessary to manually download the certificate for Pine to
find in a local directory. It is also possible the certificate is
not correctly written, using something other than "lavabit.com". I
once suffered the problem until I realized the provided smtp-server
system setup info did not match the certificate. Pine needs specific
smtp-server name to validate - double check certificate! Is the
certificate created with a prefix domain name "xxxx.lavabit.com"
or something?

Immediately add debug to get a readout of what might be happening, &
simplify. Avoid SSL/TLS or any port numbers at first. If successful,
build up in stages.

lavabit.com/debug
lavabit.com/novalidate-cert/debug
lavabit.com/user=marc/debug
lavabit.com/user=marc/novalidate-cert/debug

Also try to force POP3, as that appears to be an option:

lavabit.com/POP3/debug

--
The Best to You & Yours,
RossARR
[email protected]
mrossarr.nixsyspaus.org/
---end-of-message---

I gave up on the Republican Party two decades ago. The Democrats
offer nothing. Unless Ron Paul is on the ballot for President - I
will not vote!  As for others: Voltaire said "It is difficult to
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http://mrossarr.nixsyspaus.org/ronpaul.shtml

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