Hi Dan, many thanks for your hints. I've found a tool called pluginviewer that comes with the sasl package which creates this output: # /usr/sbin/pluginviewer Installed SASL (server side) mechanisms are: GSSAPI PLAIN ANONYMOUS LOGIN CRAM-MD5 DIGEST-MD5 EXTERNAL List of server plugins follows Plugin "gssapiv2" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: GSSAPI, best SSF: 56, supports setpass: no security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS|NO_PLAINTEXT|NO_ACTIVE|PASS_CREDENTIALS|MUTUAL_AUTH features: WANT_CLIENT_FIRST|PROXY_AUTHENTICATION Plugin "plain" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: PLAIN, best SSF: 0, supports setpass: no security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS features: WANT_CLIENT_FIRST|PROXY_AUTHENTICATION Plugin "anonymous" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: ANONYMOUS, best SSF: 0, supports setpass: no security flags: NO_PLAINTEXT features: WANT_CLIENT_FIRST Plugin "login" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: LOGIN, best SSF: 0, supports setpass: no security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS features: Plugin "crammd5" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: CRAM-MD5, best SSF: 0, supports setpass: no security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS|NO_PLAINTEXT features: SERVER_FIRST Plugin "digestmd5" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: DIGEST-MD5, best SSF: 128, supports setpass: no security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS|NO_PLAINTEXT|MUTUAL_AUTH features: PROXY_AUTHENTICATION Installed auxprop mechanisms are: sasldb List of auxprop plugins follows Plugin "sasldb" , API version: 4 supports store: yes Installed SASL (client side) mechanisms are: GSSAPI PLAIN ANONYMOUS LOGIN CRAM-MD5 DIGEST-MD5 EXTERNAL List of client plugins follows Plugin "gssapiv2" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: GSSAPI, best SSF: 56 security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS|NO_PLAINTEXT|NO_ACTIVE|PASS_CREDENTIALS|MUTUAL_AUTH features: WANT_CLIENT_FIRST|PROXY_AUTHENTICATION|NEED_SERVER_FQDN Plugin "plain" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: PLAIN, best SSF: 0 security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS features: WANT_CLIENT_FIRST|PROXY_AUTHENTICATION Plugin "anonymous" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: ANONYMOUS, best SSF: 0 security flags: NO_PLAINTEXT features: WANT_CLIENT_FIRST Plugin "login" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: LOGIN, best SSF: 0 security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS features: SERVER_FIRST Plugin "crammd5" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: CRAM-MD5, best SSF: 0 security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS|NO_PLAINTEXT features: SERVER_FIRST Plugin "digestmd5" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: DIGEST-MD5, best SSF: 128 security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS|NO_PLAINTEXT|MUTUAL_AUTH features: PROXY_AUTHENTICATION|NEED_SERVER_FQDN Plugin "EXTERNAL" [loaded], API version: 4 SASL mechanism: EXTERNAL, best SSF: 0 security flags: NO_ANONYMOUS|NO_PLAINTEXT|NO_DICTIONARY features: WANT_CLIENT_FIRST|PROXY_AUTHENTICATION This is what I have in my imapd.conf: #sasl_pwcheck_method: saslauthd sasl_pwcheck_method: auxprop sasl_mech_list: PLAIN LOGIN As the first line is commented out, I guess all sasl_pwcheck_methods will be used as you described in your e-mail. > sasl_pwcheck_method only applies to the simple password based login > methods: > > PLAIN > LOGIN > the Login command (rfc 3501, section 6.2.3) > > However, if you are using one of those methods to authenticate, be aware > that cyrus imapd may not allow any login using the methods (without > SSL/TLS > or other encryption) if the 'allowplaintext' option (which is disabled by > default) is not enabled. Ok, that was missing in my imapd.conf. I've put it in now... However, things still don't seem to work: raimund@callisto # /etc/init.d/cyrus restart Shutting down IMAP/POP3 service (cyrus-imapd) done Starting IMAP/POP3 service (cyrus-imapd) done ^-Looks ok... raimund@callisto # netstat -lntp |grep 143 tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:143 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 13298/master ^-Also looks ok... raimund@callisto # rm /etc/sasldb2 raimund@callisto # saslpasswd2 raimund Password: Again (for verification): raimund@callisto # sasldblistusers2 raimund@callisto: userPassword ^-Looks ok... (?) raimund@callisto # chown cyrus /etc/sasldb2 raimund@callisto # imtest -u raimund callisto S: * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ ID STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN SASL-IR] callisto Cyrus IMAP4 v2.3.11 server ready C: C01 CAPABILITY S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ ID STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN SASL-IR ACL RIGHTS=kxte QUOTA MAILBOX-REFERRALS NAMESPACE UIDPLUS NO_ATOMIC_RENAME UNSELECT CHILDREN MULTIAPPEND BINARY SORT SORT=MODSEQ THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES ANNOTATEMORE CATENATE CONDSTORE IDLE X-NETSCAPE URLAUTH S: C01 OK Completed Please enter your password: C: A01 AUTHENTICATE PLAIN cmFpbXVuZEBjYWxsaXN0bwByb290AGJi S: A01 NO authentication failure Authentication failed. generic failure Security strength factor: 0 ^CC: Q01 LOGOUT Connection closed. ^- Fail... Even with -m login it's not working: # imtest -u raimund -m login callisto S: * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ ID STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN SASL-IR] callisto Cyrus IMAP4 v2.3.11 server ready C: C01 CAPABILITY S: * CAPABILITY IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ ID STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN SASL-IR ACL RIGHTS=kxte QUOTA MAILBOX-REFERRALS NAMESPACE UIDPLUS NO_ATOMIC_RENAME UNSELECT CHILDREN MULTIAPPEND BINARY SORT SORT=MODSEQ THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES ANNOTATEMORE CATENATE CONDSTORE IDLE X-NETSCAPE URLAUTH S: C01 OK Completed Please enter your password: C: L01 LOGIN root {2} S: + go ahead C: <omitted> S: L01 NO Login failed: authentication failure Authentication failed. generic failure Security strength factor: 0 ^CC: Q01 LOGOUT Connection closed. Can you give me another hint about what's going wrong here? Cheers, Raimund