Mail address owners cannot change their mail passwords

[hgmichna]

Most of my mail addresses have been migrated from earlier Plesk versions some time ago.

Unlike earlier Plesk versions the mail address owners cannot change their passwords. When they try to log on to the Plesk control panel with their mail addresses and mail passwords, they get the error message, "Error: You have entered incorrect username or password." [sic]

This problem may have existed for quite some time already, but I have discovered it only now. When a new mail address owner tried to change his password, I found that he (and even even I myself) could not change his mail password when logging on with the mail address.

A few mail address users mysteriously also show up under the "Users" tab. These few can log on, change their passwords, and do a few other things, like setting up an auto-responder. But most do not and cannot.

I have tried to create a "User" for a mail address, but it does not seem to be possible, because I cannot connect any new "User" to an existing mail address. Moreover, such a new "User" would have to adopt the existing mailbox with its filled IMAP mail folders and the existing password, but I could not find any way to achieve this.

I wonder when and how this defect first appeared? Was it introduced with a new Plesk version, version 10 perhaps? But more important is the question how I can solve this problem.

 

[EduardH]

Probably control panel access is not granted to mail users.
The following script enables control panel access for all mail users:

#!/bin/bash
mysql -uadmin -p`</etc/psa/.psa.shadow` -Dpsa -Ns \
  -e"select concat(m.mail_name,'@',d.name) from domains d,mail m where d.id=m.dom_id and m.postbox='true'" | \
while read E; do
  /usr/local/psa/bin/mail -u "$E" -cp-access true
done

This script processes about 1 mail user per second, so it can take long time for too many mailboxes on the server.

BTW: Order Plesk Password Viewer to view passwords in Plesk: http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=100225

 

[hgmichna]

Thanks, but

1. This script is obviously doing a lot of work whose result is not what Plesk normally yields. Who could possibly guarantee that the result of this script is compatible with Plesk today and in all future?

2. I think the script does not solve the problem on hand, if the problem is that the mail addresses in my case have no associated "mail users" in the sense of Plesk.

 

[coolcap]

Hi,

Please check : http://kb.parallels.com/944

Solution
Use mchk utility to repair/rebuild all mail configuration files and restore settings for all mailboxes created in Plesk Panel:

# /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/mchk --help
Synopsis:
mchk [OPTION]
--without-spam - restore all settings except for SpamAssassin configuration
--with-spam - restore all settings
--spam-only - restore only SpamAssassin settings


This utility rebuilds mail server control files' mailboxes settings (including alternative servers such as Postfix in modern Plesk versions). It also sets appropriate permissions for all the related files.

Usage example:
# /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/mchk --with-spam

 

[coolcap]

Also make sure

session.auto_start Off

 

[hgmichna]

Mailbox owners cannot change their mail passwords

The last postings did not help. The last one is particularly useless. You might as well write, "The sky is blue."

I have tried the mchk command and, as expected, is has no effect whatsoever.

I created a new mailbox, ran the script, and tried to log in with the mail address and its password. The result is, "Error: You have entered incorrect username or password." [sic]

This is a simple and obvious Plesk problem. Mailbox owners were able to change their passwords. After the recent Plesk updates they can no longer do that, which is a catastrophic defect introduced and imposed on paying customers by the creators of Plesk. If this cannot be resolved quickly, the only sensible reaction by the mail users is to cancel their subscriptions and go to a different system that works and fulfills elementary security conditions.

 

[md3vxx]

@hgmichna - I am as frustrated with this issue as you are. Its affecting so 7000 email accounts across our servers. There was no mention of this 'feature removal' in any of the 10.x migration documents.

 

[md3vxx]

Please click one of the Quick Reply icons in the posts above to activate Quick Reply.

 

[hgmichna]

Migration defect

My best, but still vague guess on what's happened is this. The migration to one of the Plesk 10 versions was meant to turn each mailbox into a mail user plus mailbox combination. In fact, this actually worked for some of my mailboxes.

But the migration has a defect that missed many of the mailboxes and did not create mail users for them. All affected mailbox owners are now marooned. They do not exist as users, they cannot log on as users, they cannnot change their passwords.

If I guess right, to rectify this, the makers of Plesk would now have to create a migration repair function that picks each of these mailbox owners and creates a corresponding user for them, adopting the existing username and password.

Whether the Plesk makers would actually do that is the interesting question. Look at your general experience with the quality of Plesk maintenance and try to foresee the future.

 

[md3vxx]

I would agree with you except that if I configure a new domain on the server (e.g. non-migrated, never registered on the host) the same problem occurs.