This is a thought, and if anyone has implemented this, please tell me!
 
I have mysql/courier/postfix working..  My company has numerous clients, and we setup new e-mail accounts for them all the time, but first we obviously have to get passwords from them.
 
So my thought is this:
 
What if for a particular user in mysql (or any auth mechanism really), upon first connection if the password field is blank, the pop3 server (or imap) would insert the used password into the database?
 
So->
 
User [EMAIL PROTECTED] connects with login [EMAIL PROTECTED] and password abc123
Lookup in mysql... user exists but password field is blank.
Insert abc123 into the password field and successfully authenticate the user.
 
It's not really a security concern because it would be a new account, and it would be obvious if someone were to miraculously figure this out and "hijack" the account because a password would have been set.
 
Anther use of this would be, let's say you're migrating from a mail server which has encrypted passwords so you don't know all of your users' passwords.  Just setup the usernames and the passwords will automatically get filled in as users check their mail.  Or if you start hosting someone's e-mail, they could just give you their list of usernames without having to reset all of their passwords (since 99% of them probably don't know what password they have stored in Outlook Express).
 
This could probably also be taken a step further and have courier create users on the fly/mysql entries.  You could enable it for particular domain for a short time period, tell your new client to have all of their users check mail, then shut it off and all of the accounts will have been created automatically.
 
My programming knowledge is limited so if anyone could suggest how this could be accomplished that would be great.  Thoughts??
 
--Josh

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