Android KitKat phones cannot authenticate to dovecot imap

[Fronobulax]

I know I'm probably doing something wrong, but I cannot get Android KitKat phones to authenticate via IMAP to my Plesk 12 server (straight out of the box). Not sure if it is an issue with standard dovecot config or Android, but the only way I can get them to connect is via pop3.

I've searched the knowledgebase and forums. I'd appreciate any pointers anyone my have.

 

[UFHH01]

Hi Fronobulax,

did you as well choose the security type "SSL/TLS" ? If you still experience issues, please provide any depending log - files - entries and/or depending configuration files for further investigations.

Parallels Plesk Panel for Linux services logs and configuration files ( KB - article: 111 283 )​

 

[Fronobulax]

The phones fail to authenticate via Imap on port 143 and secure Imap on 993.
maillog as follows. I'm not sure if it means anything or not but the user login id is [email protected], the message where the Digest-md5 creates the user says [email protected]@domain.com
For all the other entries the username/password is correct in the log file.


Mar 28 08:47:30 <servername> dovecot: auth: Debug: auth client connected (pid=29223)
Mar 28 08:47:30 <servername> dovecot: auth: Debug: client in: AUTH#0111#011DIGEST-MD5#011service=imap#011session=oZ1+fRkGUwHEUgRN#011lip=<serverIP>#011rip=<clientIP>#011lport=143#011rport=33875
Mar 28 08:47:30 <servername> dovecot: auth: Debug: client passdb out: <let me know if this detail should be posted>
Mar 28 08:47:30 <servername> dovecot: auth: Debug: client in: <let me know if this detail should be posted>
Mar 28 08:47:30 <servername> dovecot: auth: Debug: plesk(<correct user email>,<ClientIP>,<oZ1+fRkGUwHEUgRN>): Found mail account for user='<correct user email>': password='<correct user password>' scheme='PLAIN' address='<correct user email>'
Mar 28 08:47:30 <servername> dovecot: auth: Debug: plesk(<correct user email>,<ClientIP>,<oZ1+fRkGUwHEUgRN>): Valid Maildir found for user='<correct user email>' at '/var/qmail/mailnames/<correct domain>/<correct user name>/Maildir'
Mar 28 08:47:30 <servername> dovecot: auth: Debug: password(<correct user email>,<ClientIP>,<oZ1+fRkGUwHEUgRN>): Generating DIGEST-MD5 from user '<[email protected]@domain.com', password '<correct user password>'
Mar 28 08:47:30 <servername> dovecot: auth: Debug: password(<correct user email>,<ClientIP>,<oZ1+fRkGUwHEUgRN>): Credentials: cad3748d0eoier91bf27wf467d6753d78
Mar 28 08:47:30 <servername> dovecot: auth: digest-md5(<correct user email>,<ClientIP>,<oZ1+fRkGUwHEUgRN>): password mismatch
Mar 28 08:47:32 <servername> dovecot: auth: Debug: client passdb out: FAIL#0111#011user=<correct user email>

 

[Fronobulax]

Ok, I have the authentication working.
The android phones were authenticating with DIGEST-MD5 and as seen above the correct information sent to the phone resulted in a password mismatch. I disabled DIGEST-MD5 for dovecot and now everything works fine as the android phones are now using plain authentication. I found a bug report on the android issue tracker (https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=70826) that discusses the same issue.