On 1 Aug 2005 at 11:32, Marc Perkel wrote about
    "Re: [exim] Why doesn't Exim authent":

| Fred Viles wrote:
|... 
| >FYI, it wouldn't work with CRAM-MD5 or other one-way-hash SASL 
| >mechanisms.  The password would not be available for exim to pass to 
| >the IMAP server.
|...
| Why wouldn't the password be available?

RTFRFC (RFC 2195, according to spec.txt).

The client does not send the password in plaintext (that's a GOOD 
thing).  It sends a cryptographic hash made from the password and the 
challenge string sent by the server.  The server can't recover the  
plain text password from the hash (it's a one-way hash), it has to 
have the plain text password already to hand so it can hash it 
itself, and verify that the client sent the expected hash.

- Fred





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