SASL authentication failure when trying to send email from remote

j0nr · 09-18-2009, 03:26 AM

Hello all,

My first post on LQ, have been using Ubuntu for about 18 months now, my first foray into Linux and wish I had done it many many years ago!

Anyway... I am running my own Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy web server on a VPS. Have been running this functionally for quite a while. I set up email etc with SSL authentication, so I could log in from a remote client using IMAP.

This has been working nice ever since I set it up, mainly I am able to receive email on my mobile device (via IMAP) but more importantly send it as well.

This stopped working last night and I am not quite savvey enough to solve it.

I have these lines which I watched appear (tail -fs 1 mail.log) as I tried to send an email from my mobile device:

Code:

Sep 18 09:15:14 server postfix/smtpd[5957]: connect from unknown[89.193.28.88]
Sep 18 09:15:14 server postfix/smtpd[5957]: setting up TLS connection from unknown[89.193.28.88]
Sep 18 09:15:14 server postfix/smtpd[5957]: Anonymous TLS connection established from unknown[89.193.28.88]: SSLv3 with cipher RC4-MD5 (128/128 bits)
Sep 18 09:15:15 server postfix/smtpd[5957]: warning: SASL authentication failure: cannot connect to saslauthd server: No such file or directory
Sep 18 09:15:15 server postfix/smtpd[5957]: warning: unknown[89.193.28.88]: SASL LOGIN authentication failed: generic failure
Sep 18 09:15:16 server postfix/smtpd[5957]: warning: SASL authentication failure: cannot connect to saslauthd server: No such file or directory
Sep 18 09:15:16 server postfix/smtpd[5957]: warning: unknown[89.193.28.88]: SASL LOGIN authentication failed: generic failure
Sep 18 09:15:16 server postfix/smtpd[5957]: disconnect from unknown[89.193.28.88]
Sep 18 09:15:17 server dovecot: IMAP(jonr): Disconnected: Logged out

Hope this means something to someone...as it has always just worked, so not sure why it has suddenly stopped.

Thanks in advance

Jon

j_jerry · 09-19-2009, 12:15 PM

Did you get any error messages when starting saslauthd ? (/etc/init.d/saslauthd)

j0nr · 09-19-2009, 04:33 PM

Nope, it stopped and restarted with no obvious error messages, if you just mean what appears on the command line when running the startup command

j_jerry · 09-19-2009, 05:33 PM

Since it used to run properly, i wonder how it just stopped one day(did you say one night??)

Are you sure you haven't changed or edited any configuration files ?

anyway, post your /etc/default/saslauthd

j0nr · 09-19-2009, 05:43 PM

Contents of saslauth:

http://pastebin.com/f72388c9c

I think this happened since the server was rebooted (not by me but by the owners) one night at v.short (i.e. missed) notice.

Thanks

Jon

j_jerry · 09-20-2009, 01:07 PM

have a look at this guide http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_debian_sarge_p4 and make sure you have a similar setup