On Sat, Aug 20, 2005 at 10:40:31AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote:
> Anthony Lau <anthony@???> wrote:
> [exim acting as SMTP AUTH client]
> > kimagure:/etc/exim4# exim4 -v -d+auth xxxxx@???
> [...]
> > 250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN XYMCOOKIE
> [...]
> > 68.142.198.11 in hosts_try_auth? yes (matched "smtp.pacbell.yahoo.com")
> > scanning authentication mechanisms
> > plain authenticator yielded 13
> > login authenticator yielded 13
> [...]
> > I tried googling and searching exim mail list archives for
> > "authenticator yielded 13" as I'm guessing it is an error
> > message. However, I do not know what it stands for.
>
> If you try with "-d" instead of "-d+auth" you should be able to see
> the cause. I think exim is failing to lookup the remote hostname in
> /etc/exim4/passwd.client.
I have used the "-d" option before and it produces just about the same
output in that section. I thought this line
68.142.198.11 in hosts_try_auth? yes (matched "smtp.pacbell.yahoo.com")
meant that it found the right remote hostname in the passwd.client file?
> > I have a /etc/passwd.client file that required for authentication.
>
> "/etc/passwd.client"? The correct file is /etc/exim4/passwd.client.
I'm sorry, that is a typo on my part. The file has always been /etc/exim4/passwd.client
> > I have tried to follow the instructions, but there seems to be
> > some conflict with the exact syntax. Within exim4.conf it says the
> > password should be "crypted".
>
> Please show a quote. Any reference to "crypted" passwords should refer
> to exim acting as SMTP AUTH server not as client.
Again, you are correct. The crypted passwords portion of the text is found
above the server section. However after having read the RFC and the server
section, the client section says:
# They get the passwords from CONFDIR/passwd.client. This file should have
# three columns separated by colons, the first contains the name of the
# mailserver to authenticate against, the second the username and the third
# contains the password.
Since I was already having trouble with the connection and that the error was
occuring somewhere in the authentication part, "the password" was too cryptic
for all the possibilities that were running through my head.
However, this email got me rethinking about the problem.
For laughs, I set AUTH_CLIENT_ALLOW_NOTLS_PASSWORDS, even though the
instructions below suggest that exim4 will try encrypted then try
"in clear". Again, probably a misread under the circumstances.
# Because AUTH PLAIN and AUTH LOGIN send the password in clear, we
# only allow these mechanisms over encrypted connections by default.
# You can set AUTH_CLIENT_ALLOW_NOTLS_PASSWORDS to allow unencrypted
# clear text password authentication on all connections.
This time, exim actually tried to do some sort of authentication and failed.
What happened is as you suggested, exim could not find hostname in the
passwd.client. SBC gives my smtp server as "smtp.pacbell.yahoo.com". However,
the logs show I am actually logging into "smtp.sbc.mail.yahoo4.akadns.net".
My original passwd.client file only had "smtp.pacbell.yahoo.com". After I
added a new entry with "smtp.sbc.mail.yahoo4.akadns.net" it worked.
So, I'm guessing "authenticator yielded 13" meant some problem in the syntax
of my passwd.client file since exim4 was looking for crypted password instead
of a plaintext one. At least for the Debian exim4.52 package.
Thanks,
Anthony
