No secret in database (problems trying to send email using Thunderbird)

Debbie Deutsch fedora at ddeutsch.org
Fri May 6 17:00:23 UTC 2005


My system is running FC3 (upgraded from RH9) and is not relaying email that
is originated on the same host by Thunderbird.  Can anyone help?  After a
few days of trying to get this to work, I am stumped.  The symptom is I get
asked for a password, which I supply correctly.  Sendmail logs an error
message "No secret in database".

1. The old sendmail.mc / sendmail.cf files used to work fine.  The
DAEMON_OPTION line restricting access to the local host is commented out,
even though that should not be an issue either way in this case.  In an
attempt to get things working, I added a line to the "access" file to permit
relaying for the specific address of that host.

2. I have read up on SMTP Auth and have NOT tried to turn it on.  I am just
trying to get things working the way they were.  (I am the only person with
physical access to the server or any of the PCs on my LAN, everything is
hidden behind an appliance-type firewall with ports enabled only as I find I
need to, and so on.)  Once things work the old way, then SMTP Auth is a
definite possibility.  However, for the record

+ saslauthd is running (I had to turn that on)
+ I created an entry in the sasl database for the user trying to send mail,
and have verified that there are entries for that user for PLAIN, CRAM-MD5,
and DIGEST-MD5
+ I generated a certificate for the host
+ Originally the system was configured to use "shadow" for authentication
for sendmail; in trying to get things to work I tried "pam" and (now)
"getpwent", on the grounds that that uses the regular system password file
and should not be subject to missing database entries.  (So much for that
theory.)  
+ When I use ethereal to snoop on the interaction between Thunderbird and
Sendmail, I see an AUTH CRAM-MD5 command, a response, a message body
command, and then an authentication failed response.  When I telnet to port
25 on my server and do an EHLO <myhostname>, sendmail lists GSSAPI
DIGEST-MD5 and CRAM-MD5 for AUTH

Can anyone shed any light on this?  Suggestions for fixes would be most
welcome.  Also, explanations would be nice too.  If I am not understanding
something correctly, please do not hold back - I want to learn.  I am very
comfortable around computers, but it's been a few years since the last time
I tried to configure a Linux box and I never was an expert on that.

TIA,

Debbie





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