Postfix sasl login failing no mechanism found

Question

following the link here: http://flurdy.com/docs/postfix/ with posfix, courier, MySql, and sasl gave me a web server that has imap functionality working fine but when i go to log into the server to send a message using the same user id and password for connecting the the imap server it rejects my login to the smtp server. If i do not specify a login for the outgoing mail server then it will send the message just fine. the error in postfix's log is:

Jul  6 17:26:10 Sj-Linux postfix/smtpd[19139]: connect from unknown[10.0.0.50]

Jul  6 17:26:10 Sj-Linux postfix/smtpd[19139]: warning: SASL authentication failure: unable to canonify user and get auxprops

Jul  6 17:26:10 Sj-Linux postfix/smtpd[19139]: warning: unknown[10.0.0.50]: SASL DIGEST-MD5 authentication failed: no mechanism available

Jul  6 17:26:10 Sj-Linux postfix/smtpd[19139]: warning: unknown[10.0.0.50]: SASL LOGIN authentication failed: no mechanism available

Ive checked all usernames and passwords for mysql. what could be going wrong?

edit:

here is some other information:

installed libraires for postfix, courier and sasl:

aptitude install postfix postfix-mysql
aptitude install libsasl2-modules libsasl2-modules-sql libgsasl7 libauthen-sasl-cyrus-perl sasl2-bin libpam-mysql
aptitude install courier-base courier-authdaemon courier-authlib-mysql courier-imap courier-imap-ssl courier-ssl

and here is my /etc/postfix/main.cf

myorigin = domain.com

smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name
biff = no

# appending .domain is the MUA's job.
append_dot_mydomain = no

# Uncomment the next line to generate "delayed mail" warnings
#delay_warning_time = 4h

readme_directory = no

# TLS parameters
smtpd_tls_cert_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
smtpd_use_tls=yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache

# See /usr/share/doc/postfix/TLS_README.gz in the postfix-doc package for
# information on enabling SSL in the smtp client.

#myhostname = my hostname

alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
myorigin = /etc/mailname
local_recipient_maps =
mydestination =
relayhost =
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
mailbox_size_limit = 0
recipient_delimiter = +
inet_interfaces = all
mynetworks_style = host

# how long if undelivered before sending warning update to sender
delay_warning_time = 4h
# will it be a permanent error or temporary
unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 450
# how long to keep message on queue before return as failed.
# some have 3 days, I have 16 days as I am backup server for some people
# whom go on holiday with their server switched off.
maximal_queue_lifetime = 7d
# max and min time in seconds between retries if connection failed
minimal_backoff_time = 1000s
maximal_backoff_time = 8000s
# how long to wait when servers connect before receiving rest of data
smtp_helo_timeout = 60s
# how many address can be used in one message.
# effective stopper to mass spammers, accidental copy in whole address list
# but may restrict intentional mail shots.
# but may restrict intentional mail shots.
smtpd_recipient_limit = 16
# how many error before back off.
smtpd_soft_error_limit = 3
# how many max errors before blocking it.
smtpd_hard_error_limit = 12

# Requirements for the HELO statement
smtpd_helo_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, permit
# Requirements for the sender details
smtpd_sender_restrictions = permit_sasl_authenticated, permit_mynetworks, warn_if_reject reject_non_fqdn_sender, reject_unknown_sender_domain, reject_unauth_pipelining, permit
# Requirements for the connecting server
smtpd_client_restrictions = reject_rbl_client sbl.spamhaus.org, reject_rbl_client blackholes.easynet.nl, reject_rbl_client dnsbl.njabl.org
# Requirement for the recipient address
smtpd_recipient_restrictions = reject_unauth_pipelining, permit_mynetworks, permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_non_fqdn_recipient, reject_unknown_recipient_domain, reject_unauth_destination, permit
smtpd_data_restrictions = reject_unauth_pipelining

# require proper helo at connections
smtpd_helo_required = yes
# waste spammers time before rejecting them
smtpd_delay_reject = yes
disable_vrfy_command = yes

# not sure of the difference of the next two
# but they are needed for local aliasing
alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases
# this specifies where the virtual mailbox folders will be located
virtual_mailbox_base = /var/spool/mail/virtual
# this is for the mailbox location for each user
virtual_mailbox_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql_mailbox.cf
# and this is for aliases
virtual_alias_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql_alias.cf
# and this is for domain lookups
virtual_mailbox_domains = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql_domains.cf
# this is how to connect to the domains (all virtual, but the option is there)
# not used yet
# transport_maps = mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql_transport.cf

virtual_uid_maps = static:5000
virtual_gid_maps = static:5000

# SASL
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
# If your potential clients use Outlook Express or other older clients
# this needs to be set to yes
broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes
smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtpd_sasl_local_domain =

Answer 1

I've stumbled on a problem that seems very similar to this. The solution was to modify slightly the smtpd.conf file (located in /etc/postfix/sasl).

Indeed, there are two errors in the flurdy.com tutorial :

Original version :

pwcheck_method: saslauthd 
mech_list: plain login cram-md5 digest-md5 
log_level: 7 
allow_plaintext: true 
auxprop_plugin: mysql  # <-----
sql_engine: mysql 
sql_hostnames: 127.0.0.1 
sql_user: mail 
sql_passw: mailPASSWORD  # <----
sql_database: maildb 
sql_select: select crypt from users where id='%u@%r' and enabled = 1

Corrected :

pwcheck_method: saslauthd 
mech_list: plain login cram-md5 digest-md5 
log_level: 7 
allow_plaintext: true 
auxprop_plugin: sql # <--- sql instead of mysql
sql_engine: mysql 
sql_hostnames: 127.0.0.1 
sql_user: mail 
sql_passwd: mailPASSWORD # <---- sql_passwd instead of sql_passw
sql_database: maildb 
sql_select: select crypt from users where id='%u@%r' and enabled = 1

Hope that will answer your problem

Answer 2

This symptom shows that your postfix setup is not able to use the SASL libraries in a sane manner.

Check that you have available the SASL mechanism library corresponding to whatever mechanisms you are using (e.g., plain). For example in CentOS 5 this is accomplished by installing separate packages (e.g., if you're using Cyrus SASL then you would need the package named cyrus-sasl-plain in order to use the plain mechanism). With that in place you should have matching SASL parameters in postfix's configuration. See "man 5 postconf" to get all the details about it.

If it still doesn't work you might want to expand your question by grepping the ^smtp.*sasl parameters from your /etc/postfix/main.cf .

Answer 3

I had a similar problem:

SASL PLAIN authentication failed: no mechanism available

and found out, that a package was missing:

aptitude install libsasl2-modules-sql 

which solved the issue