I encountered the same problem. Maybe the attached patch could be used?
Arne
--- sendmail-8.13.8/sendmail/srvrsmtp.c 2007-09-24 15:46:20.000000000 +0200 +++ build-tree/sendmail-8.13.8/sendmail/srvrsmtp.c 2007-09-24 15:47:01.000000000 +0200 @@ -1552,7 +1552,7 @@ break; } - if (ismore) + if (ismore && !(strlen(q)==1 && q[0]=='=')) { /* could this be shorter? XXX */ # if SASL >= 20000