FAQ
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上传日期:2007-01-04
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- Last Updated: 3 November 1999
- Q: Is this software Y2K compliant?
- A: Please read the files Y2K and calendar.txt.
- Q: How do I configure the IMAP and POP servers?
- Q: I built and installed the servers according to the BUILD instructions.
- It can't be that easy. Don't I need to write a config file?
- A: For ordinary "vanilla" UNIX systems, this software is plug and play; just
- build it, install it, and you're done. If you have a modified system,
- then you may want to do additional work; most of this is to a single
- source code file (env_unix.c on UNIX systems). Read the file CONFIG
- for more details.
- Yes, it's that easy.
- Q: I have an NT system. Why isn't it plug and play for me?
- A: There is no standard for how mail is stored on NT; no single standard
- SMTP server. So there's no default by which to make assumptions. As
- the software is set up, it assumes that the each user has an NT login
- account and private home directory, and that mail is stored on that
- home directory as files in one of the popular UNIX formats. It also
- assumes that there is some tool equivalent to inetd on UNIX that does
- the TCP/IP listening and server startup.
- Basically, unless you're an email software hacker, you probably want
- to look elsewhere if you want IMAP/POP servers for NT.
- Q: Can I set up a POP or IMAP server on Windows 95 and 98?
- A: Yes. Refer to the NT specific notes in files CONFIG and BUILD. Also,
- you *must* set up CRAM-MD5 authentication, as described in md5.txt.
- There is no file access control on Windows 9x, so you probably will
- have to do modifications to env_unix.c to prevent people from hacking
- others' mail.
- Q: I've heard that IMAP servers are insecure. Is this true?
- A: There are no known security problems in this version of the IMAP
- toolkit, including the IMAP and POP servers. The IMAP and POP
- servers limit what can be done while not logged in, and as part of
- the login process discard all privileges except those of the user.
- There were buffer overflow vulnerabilities in earlier versions which
- were used to mount widespread attacks against unlogged-in (and hence
- root-privileged) servers. These problems were fixed years ago;
- unfortunately "Internet folklore" and old versions tend to persist
- long after problems are fixed.
- There is every reason to believe that the bad guys are engaged in an
- ongoing effort to find vulnerabilities in the IMAP toolkit; but to
- the best of our knowledge these efforts have been futile in recent
- years. Judging from CERT reports, they've had much greater success
- in other software, so it does not appear to be an ongoing problem
- for the IMAP toolkit.
- We are unhappy that any vulnerabilities existed in past versions, and
- we're doing our best to keep the IMAP toolkit free of vulnerabilities.
- Q: What does the syslog message:
- imap/tcp server failing (looping)
- mean? When it happens, IMAP service shuts down. How can I fix this?
- Q: What does the syslog message:
- pop3/tcp server failing (looping)
- mean? When it happens, POP3 service shuts down. How can I fix this?
- A: The error message "server failing (looping), service terminated" is not
- from either the IMAP or POP servers. Instead, it comes from inetd, the
- daemon which listens for TCP connections to a number of servers,
- including the IMAP and POP servers.
- inetd has a limit of 40 new server sessions per minute for any particular
- service. If more than 40 sessions are initiated in a minute, inetd will
- issue the "failing (looping), service terminated" message and shut
- down the service for 10 minutes.
- For larger server systems, the limit of 40 is much too low. The limit was
- established many years ago when a system typically only ran a few dozen
- servers.
- On some versions of inetd, such as the one distributed with most versions
- of Linux, you can modify the /etc/inetd.conf file to have a larger number
- of servers by appending a colon followed by a number after the "nowait"
- word for the server entry. For example, if your existing /etc/inetd.conf
- line reads:
- imap stream tcp nowait root /usr/etc/imapd imapd
- try changing it to be:
- imap stream tcp nowait:100 root /usr/etc/imapd imapd
- Another example (using TCP wrappers):
- imap stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd imapd
- try changing it to be:
- imap stream tcp nowait:100 root /usr/sbin/tcpd imapd
- to increase the limit to 100 sessions/minute.
- Before making this change, please read the information in "man inetd" to
- determine whether or not your inetd has this feature. If it does not, and
- you make this change, the likely outcome is that you will disable IMAP
- service entirely.
- Another way to fix this problem is to edit the inetd.c source code
- (provided by your UNIX system vendor) to set higher limits, rebuild inetd,
- install the new binary, and reboot your system. This should only be done
- by a UNIX system expert. In the inetd.c source code, the limits TOOMANY
- (normally 40) is the maximum number of new server sessions permitted per
- minute, and RETRYTIME (normally 600) is the number of seconds inetd will
- shut down the server after it exceeds TOOMANY.
- Q: What does the message:
- Mailbox vulnerable - directory /var/spool/mail must have 1777 protection
- mean? How can I fix this?
- A: In order to update a mailbox in the default UNIX format, it is necessary
- to create a lock file to prevent the mailer from delivering mail while
- an update is in progress. Some systems use a directory protection of
- 775, requiring that all mail handling programs be setgid mail; or of
- 755, requiring that all mail handling programs be setuid root.
- The IMAP toolkit does not run with any special privileges, and we plan
- to keep it that way. It is antithetical to the concept of a toolkit
- if users can't write their own programs to use it. Also, we've had
- enough bad experiences with security bugs while running privileged;
- the IMAP and POP servers have to be root when not logged in, in order
- to be able to log themselves in. We don't want to go any deeper down
- that slippery slope.
- Directory protection 1777 is secure enough on most well-managed systems.
- If you can't trust your users with a 1777 mail spool (petty harassment
- is about the limit of the abuse exposure), then you have much worse
- problems then that.
- If you absolutely insist upon requiring privileges to create a lock file,
- external file locking can be done via a setgid mail program named
- /etc/mlock (this is defined by LOCKPGM in the c-client Makefile). If
- the toolkit is unable to create a <mailbox>.lock file in the directory
- by itself, it will try to call mlock to do it. We do not recommend
- doing this for performance reasons.
- A sample mlock program is part of the imap-utils package:
- ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/mail/imap-utils.tar.Z
- We have tried to make this sample program reasonably secure, but it
- has not been thoroughly audited.
- Q: Can I use SSL?
- A: Unfortunately, due to US government export restrictions, the source code
- to our SSL IMAP patchkit is currently not available. There are packages
- available from third parties to modify the IMAP toolkit to do SSL, or
- to tunnel IMAP and POP3 sessions through SSL.
- We are not happy about the restrictions (especially since our SSL IMAP
- patchkit is a very clean implementation), but our hands are tied. The
- recent announcement about a relaxation of encryption restrictions does
- not apply to us, because we distribute free software in source form on
- a non-discriminatory basis.
- Q: Can I use TLS and the STARTTLS facility?
- A: Not at the present time. Support for STARTTLS will be added in the
- future, but it is likely to be under the same distribution restrictions
- as SSL support. It is also much harder to add STARTTLS capability to
- the servers than it is to do SSL tunneling.
- Q: Can I use CRAM-MD5 authentication?
- Q: Can I use APOP authentication?
- A: CRAM-MD5 authentication is enabled in the IMAP and POP3 client code on
- all platforms. Read md5.txt to learn how to set up CRAM-MD5 and APOP
- authentication on UNIX and NT servers.
- There is no support for APOP client authentication.
- Q: Can I use RPOP authentication?
- A: There is no support for RPOP authentication.
- Q: Can I use Kerberos V5?
- A: Kerberos V5 is supported if you build the software with
- EXTRAAUTHENTICATORS=GSS set, e.g.
- make slx EXTRAAUTHENTICATORS=gss
- Q: Can I use Kerberos V4?
- A: Kerberos V4 is not supported. Kerberos V4 client-only contributed code
- is available as:
- ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/mail/kerberos4-patches.tar.Z
- This is a patchkit which must be applied to the IMAP toolkit according
- to the instructions in the patchkit's README. I can not promise that
- this code works.
- Q: Can I use PAM for plaintext passwords?
- A: On Linux systems, use the lnp port, e.g.
- make lnp
- On Solaris systems and other systems with defective PAM implementations,
- build with PASSWDTYPE=pmb, e.g.
- make sol PASSWDTYPE=pmb
- On all other systems, build with PASSWDTYPE=pam, e.g
- make foo PASSWDTYPE=pam
- If you build with PASSWDTYPE=pam and authentication does not work, try
- rebuilding (after a "make clean") with PASSWDTYPE=pmb.
- Q: Can I use AFS for plaintext passwords?
- A: Build with PASSWDTYPE=afs, e.g
- make sol PASSWDTYPE=afs
- Q: Can I use DCE for plaintext passwords?
- A: Build with PASSWDTYPE=dce, e.g
- make sol PASSWDTYPE=dce
- Q: Can I use the CRAM-MD5 database for plaintext passwords?
- A: The CRAM-MD5 password database is automatically used for plaintext
- password if it exists.
- Note that this gives you the worst of both worlds -- plaintext passwords
- over the network and plaintext passwords stored on the server! You
- probably don't want to do this unless all access is through SSL. It
- is recommended that you disable plaintext passwords (see the next
- question).
- Q: Can I disable plaintext passwords?
- A: Server-level plaintext passwords can be disabled by setting
- PASSWDTYPE=nul, e.g.
- make lnx EXTRAAUTHENTICATORS=gss PASSWDTYPE=nul
- Note that you must specify at least one EXTRAAUTHENTICATOR, otherwise
- it will not be possible to log in to the server.
- Q: Is there support for S/Key or OTP?
- A: There is currently no support for S/Key or OTP. There may be an OTP
- SASL authenticator available from the OTP folks.
- Q: Is there support for NTLM or SPA?
- A: There is currently no support for NTML or SPA, nor are there any plans
- to add such support. In general, we avoid vendor-specific mechanisms.
- Q: Is there support for qmail and the maildir format?
- A: There is no support for qmail or the maildir format in our distribution,
- nor are there any plans to add such support. Some third parties offer
- add-ons drivers that purport to support maildir format. We can't vouch
- for their reliablity or performance.
- Q: How can I enable anonymous IMAP logins?
- A: Create the file /etc/anonymous.newsgroups. At the present time, this
- file should be empty. This will permit IMAP logins as anonymous as
- well as the ANONYMOUS SASL authenticator. Anonymous users have access
- to mailboxes in the #news., #ftp/, and #public/ namespaces only.
- Q: How do I set up an alert message that each IMAP user will see?
- A: Create the file /etc/imapd.alert with the text of the message. This
- text should be kept to one line if possible. Note that this will
- cause an alert to every IMAP user every time they initiate an IMAP
- session, so it should only be used for critical messages.
- Q: Why does mail disappear even though I set "keep mail on server"?
- Q: Why do I get the message
- Moved ##### bytes of new mail to /home/user/mbox from /var/spool/mail/mbox
- and why did this happen?
- A: This is probably caused by the mbox driver. If the file "mbox" exists on
- the user's home directory and is in UNIX mailbox format, then when INBOX
- is opened this file will be selected as INBOX instead of the mail spool
- file. Messages will be automatically transferred from the mail spool file
- into the mbox file.
- To disable this behavior, delete "mbox" from the EXTRADRIVERS list in the
- top-level Makefile and rebuild. Note that if you do this, users won't
- be able to access the messages that have already been moved to mbox
- unless they open mbox instead of INBOX.
- Q: What is the status of internationalization?
- A: The IMAP toolkit is partially internationalized and multilingualized.
- In particular, searching is supported in the following charsets:
- US-ASCII, UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-2, ISO-8859-3, ISO-8859-4,
- ISO-8859-5, ISO-8859-6, ISO-8859-7, ISO-8859-8, ISO-8859-9,
- ISO-8859-10, ISO-8859-11, ISO-8859-13, ISO-8859-14, ISO-8859-15,
- KOI8-R, KOI8-U (alias KOI8-RU), TIS-620, VISCII,
- ISO-2022-JP, ISO-2022-KR, ISO-2022-CN, ISO-2022-JP-1, ISO-2022-JP-2,
- GB2312 (alias CN-GB), CN-GB-12345, BIG5 (alias CN-BIG5),
- EUC-JP, EUC-KR, Shift_JIS
- All ISO-2022-?? charsets are treated identically, and support ASCII,
- JIS Roman, hankaku katakana, ISO-8859-[1 - 10], TIS, GB 2312, JIS X 0208,
- JIS X 0212, KSC 5601, and planes 1 and 2 of CNS 11643.
- EUC-JP includes support for JIS X 0212 and hankaku katakana.
- There is no support for localization (e.g. non-English error messages)
- at the present time, but such support is planned.
- Q: Why isn't it showing the local host name as a fully-qualified domain
- name?
- Q: Why is the local host name in the From/Sender/Message-ID headers of
- outgoing mail not coming out as a fully-qualified domain name?
- A: Your UNIX system is misconfigured. The entry for your system in
- /etc/hosts must have the fully-qualified domain name first, e.g.
- 105.69.1.234 bombastic.blurdybloop.com bombastic
- A common mistake of novice system administrators is to have the
- short name first, e.g.
- 105.69.1.234 bombastic bombastic.blurdybloop.com
- or to omit the fully qualified domain name entirely, e.g.
- 105.69.1.234 bombastic
- The result of this is that when the IMAP toolkit does a gethostbyname()
- call to get the fully-qualified domain name, it would get "bombastic"
- instead of "bombastic.blurdybloop.com".
- On some systems, a configuration file (typically named /etc/svc.conf,
- /etc/netsvc.conf, or /etc/nsswitch.conf) can be used to configure the
- system to use the domain name system (DNS) instead of /etc/hosts, so
- it doesn't matter if /etc/hosts is misconfigured.
- Check the man pages for gethostbyname, hosts, svc, and/or netsvc for
- more information.
- Unfortunately, certain vendors, most notably SUN, have failed to
- make this clear in their documentation. Most of SUN's documentation
- assumes a corporate network that is not connected to the Internet.
- net.folklore once (late 1980s) held that the proper procedure was to
- append the results of getdomainname(), and some versions of sendmail
- configuration files were distributed that did this. This was
- incorrect; the string returned from getdomainname() is the Yellow
- Pages (a.k.a NIS) domain name, which is a completely different
- (albeit unfortunately named) entity from an Internet domain. These
- were often fortuitously the same string, except when they weren't.
- Frequently, domain names would be spuriously doubled, e.g.
- "bombastic.blurdybloop.com.blurdybloop.com". This practice has been
- thoroughly discredited for many years, but folklore dies hard.