The risk of someone bothering to parse packets and retrieve your passwords in order to gain access to user email is, I think, extremely small unless you have information that people really want to read, in which case it is easy to do.
In other words, almost anyone can get a password from plain text email, but almost no one in most cases of standard email would bother wasting their time. On the other hand, if you have email or email accounts that need to be secure for specific reasons then it is mandatory that you use some form of encryption (such as SSL, etc.) because the email is easily read, and the passwords if passed in plain text are easy to retrieve. I hope that helps... Jeff Ross Gohlke wrote: >I have tried to install the patch linked from the XMail homepage: >http://mail.godeltech.com/xmail/ > >My specs: >FreeBSD 5.3 >openssl-0.9.7d > >I downloaded the patch and applied it to my preexisting XMail 1.2.1 >source. I did not use the binary for FreeBSD 4.8. > >gmake -f Makefile-SSL.bsd >outputs this: > >%gmake -f Makefile-SSL.bsd >../bin/MkMachDep > SysMachine.h >g++ -O2 -I. -DUSE_SSL -D__UNIX__ -D__BSD__ -D__FREEBSD__ -D_REENTRANT=1 >-D_THREAD_SAFE=1 -DHAS_SYSMACHINE -c SSLSupport.cpp >SSLSupport.cpp:161:8: warning: extra tokens at end of #endif directive g++ > -O2 -I. -DUSE_SSL -D__UNIX__ -D__BSD__ -D__FREEBSD__ -D_REENTRANT=1 >-D_THREAD_SAFE=1 -DHAS_SYSMACHINE -c BuffSock.cpp >g++ -O2 -I. -DUSE_SSL -D__UNIX__ -D__BSD__ -D__FREEBSD__ -D_REENTRANT=1 >-D_THREAD_SAFE=1 -DHAS_SYSMACHINE -c MailSvr.cpp >g++ -O2 -I. -DUSE_SSL -D__UNIX__ -D__BSD__ -D__FREEBSD__ -D_REENTRANT=1 >-D_THREAD_SAFE=1 -DHAS_SYSMACHINE -c POP3Svr.cpp >g++ -O2 -I. -DUSE_SSL -D__UNIX__ -D__BSD__ -D__FREEBSD__ -D_REENTRANT=1 >-D_THREAD_SAFE=1 -DHAS_SYSMACHINE -c POP3Utils.cpp >g++ -O2 -I. -DUSE_SSL -D__UNIX__ -D__BSD__ -D__FREEBSD__ -D_REENTRANT=1 >-D_THREAD_SAFE=1 -DHAS_SYSMACHINE -c SMAILSvr.cpp >g++ -O2 -I. -DUSE_SSL -D__UNIX__ -D__BSD__ -D__FREEBSD__ -D_REENTRANT=1 >-D_THREAD_SAFE=1 -DHAS_SYSMACHINE -c SMAILUtils.cpp >g++ -O2 -I. -DUSE_SSL -D__UNIX__ -D__BSD__ -D__FREEBSD__ -D_REENTRANT=1 >-D_THREAD_SAFE=1 -DHAS_SYSMACHINE -c SMTPSvr.cpp >g++ -O2 -I. -DUSE_SSL -D__UNIX__ -D__BSD__ -D__FREEBSD__ -D_REENTRANT=1 >-D_THREAD_SAFE=1 -DHAS_SYSMACHINE -c SMTPUtils.cpp >g++ -o bin/XMail SSLSupport.o BuffSock.o CTRLSvr.o DynDNS.o DNS.o >DNSCache.o Errors.o ExtAliases.o FINGSvr.o MailConfig.o MailSvr.o >Maildir.o MailDomains.o MD5.o MiscUtils.o LMAILSvr.o AliasDomain.o >POP3GwLink.o POP3Svr.o POP3Utils.o PSYNCSvr.o ResLocks.o SList.o >SMAILSvr.o TabIndex.o SMAILUtils.o SMTPSvr.o SMTPUtils.o ShBlocks.o >StrUtils.o MessQueue.o QueueUtils.o SvrUtils.o SysDep.o UsrMailList.o >UsrAuth.o UsrUtils.o Main.o Base64Enc.o Filter.o -lkvm -lcrypt -pthread >-lc_r -lssl -lcrypto >SSLSupport.o(.text+0x388): In function `SSLMakeSession(int, int, int)': : >undefined reference to `SysSetSockNoDelay(int, int)' >POP3Utils.o(.text+0xe08): In function >`UPopSessionSendMsg(POP3_HANDLE_struct*, int, BSOCK_HANDLE_struct*)': : >undefined reference to `SysSendFile(BSOCK_HANDLE_struct*, char const*, >unsigned long, unsigned long, int)' >SMTPUtils.o(.text+0x28b6): In function >`USmtpSendMail(SMTPCH_HANDLE_struct*, char const*, char const*, >FileSection const*, SMTPError*)': >: undefined reference to `SysSendFile(BSOCK_HANDLE_struct*, char const*, >unsigned long, unsigned long, int)' >gmake: *** [bin/XMail] Error 1 > >Is anybody else interested in SSL-encrypted SMTP authentication? Is >anybody else using this patch? On FreeBSD 5.3? > >Any suggestion on what I could try? Would upgrading openssl to >openssl-0.9.7e help? > >If not SSL, what is the risk of a plaintext password sent over the >Internet being picked off and abused? > >Thanks. > >Ross > > > > > > >- >To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in >the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
