Bug 288520 – [exim] ERR w/ PATCH : Dovecot authentication socket protocol error; Missing Close.

• Status: RESOLVED FIXED
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description J G 2009-10-11 08:16:08 UTC]

With Dovecot-SASL enabled and using AUTH LOGIN the following error will appear when authentication is attempted:
"<~* 435 Unable to authenticate at present"
In the exim reject log the following explanation is provided:
"2009-10-11 00:50:12 dovecot_login authenticator failed for localhost [127.0.0.1]: 435 Unable to authenticate at present: authentication socket protocol error"

The exim project is aware of this problem and has fixed it in 4.70.  The bug here briefly discusses it and provides more information:
http://bugs.exim.org/show_bug.cgi?id=667

The patch is located here:
http://vcs.exim.org/viewvc/exim/exim-src/src/auths/dovecot.c?r1=1.8&r2=1.9



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Enable dovecot-sasl w/ exim
2.  In exim.conf create dovecot_login as described here:  http://wiki.dovecot.org/HowTo/EximAndDovecotSASL
3.  Attempt to login using dovecot_login via swaks or whatever you choose, watch dovecot_login fail.

Actual Results:  
"<~* 435 Unable to authenticate at present"
In the exim reject log the following explanation is provided:
"2009-10-11 00:50:12 dovecot_login authenticator failed for localhost [127.0.0.1]: 435 Unable to authenticate at present: authentication socket protocol error"

Expected Results:  
~> AUTH LOGIN
-- details --
<~  235 Authentication succeeded

[Comment 1 J G 2009-10-11 08:20:16 UTC]

Created attachment 206733 [details, diff]
Patch to fix the described error.

The patch works.  It would be nice to have it added to the exim ebuild.

[Comment 2 Wormo (RETIRED) 2009-10-20 06:43:48 UTC]

Thanks for posting the fix for this problem -- assigning to exim maintainers.

[Comment 3 Fabian Groffen 2009-10-20 07:23:18 UTC]

Thanks for the patch and references, I'll bump exim with this patch asap

[Comment 4 J G 2009-10-20 07:32:41 UTC]

Awesome!  Thank you very much.

[Comment 5 Fabian Groffen 2009-10-20 17:47:11 UTC]

patch added to -r4, this one needs to go for stabilisation in 30 days.  Thanks!