Password Databases
==================

Dovecot authenticates users against password databases. It can also be used to
configure things like <proxies> [PasswordDatabase.ExtraFields.Proxy.txt].

You can use multiple databases, so if the password doesn't match in the first
database, Dovecot checks the next one. This can be useful if you want to easily
support having both virtual users and also local system users (see
<Authentication.MultipleDatabases.txt>).

Success/failure databases
-------------------------

These databases simply verify if the given password is correct for the user.
Dovecot doesn't get the correct password from the database, it only gets a
"success" or a "failure" reply. This means that these databases can't be used
with non-plaintext <authentication mechanisms> [Authentication.Mechanisms.txt].

Databases that belong to this category are:

 * <PAM> [PasswordDatabase.PAM.txt]: Pluggable Authentication Modules.
 * <BSDAuth> [PasswordDatabase.BSDAuth.txt]: BSD authentication.
 * <CheckPassword> [AuthDatabase.CheckPassword.txt]: External checkpassword
   program without Dovecot extensions.
 * <IMAP> [PasswordDatabase.IMAP.txt]: Authenticate against remote IMAP server.

Lookup databases
----------------

Dovecot does a lookup based on the username and possibly other information
(e.g. IP address) and verifies the password validity itself. Fields that the
lookup can return:

 * <password> [Authentication.PasswordSchemes.txt]: User's password.
    * password_noscheme: Like "password", but if a password begins with "{",
      assume it belongs to the password itself instead of treating it as a
      <scheme> [Authentication.PasswordSchemes.txt] prefix. This is usually
      needed only if you use plaintext passwords.
 * <user> [PasswordDatabase.ExtraFields.User.txt]: Returning a user field can
   be used to change the username. Typically used only for case changes (e.g.
   "UseR" -> "user").
    * username: Like user, but doesn't drop existing domain name (e.g.
      "username=foo" for "user@domain" gives "foo@domain").
    * domain: Updates the domain part of the username.
 * Other special <extra fields> [PasswordDatabase.ExtraFields.txt].

Databases that support looking up only passwords, but no user or extra fields:

 * <Passwd> [AuthDatabase.Passwd.txt]: System users (NSS, '/etc/passwd', or
   similiar).
 * <Shadow> [PasswordDatabase.Shadow.txt]: Shadow passwords for system users
   (NSS,'/etc/shadow' or similiar).
    * Dovecot supports reading all <password schemes>
      [Authentication.PasswordSchemes.txt] from passwd and shadow databases (if
      prefix is specified), but that is of course incompatible with all other
      tools using/modifying the passwords.
 * <VPopMail> [AuthDatabase.VPopMail.txt]: External software used to handle
   virtual domains.

Databases that support looking up everything:

 * <Passwd-file> [AuthDatabase.PasswdFile.txt]: '/etc/passwd'-like file in
   specified location.
 * <LDAP> [AuthDatabase.LDAP.txt]: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.
 * <SQL> [AuthDatabase.SQL.txt]: SQL database (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite).
 * <Dict> [AuthDatabase.Dict.txt]: Dict key-value database (Redis, memcached,
   etc.)
 * <CheckPassword> [AuthDatabase.CheckPassword.txt]: External checkpassword
   program when used with Dovecot extensions.
 * <Static> [PasswordDatabase.Static.txt]: Static passdb for simple
   configurations

Passdb settings
---------------

An example passdb passwd-file with its default settings:

---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------
passdb {
  driver = passwd-file
  args = scheme=ssha256 /usr/local/etc/passwd.replica
  default_fields =
  override_fields =

  deny = no
  master = no
  pass = no
  skip = never

  result_failure = continue
  result_internalfail = continue
  result_success = return-ok
}
---%<-------------------------------------------------------------------------

First we have the settings that provide content for the passdb lookup:

 * driver: The passdb backend name
 * args: Arguments for the passdb backend. The format of this value depends on
   the passdb driver. Each one uses different args.
 * default_fields: Passdb fields (and <extra fields>
   [PasswordDatabase.ExtraFields.txt]) that are used, unless overwritten by the
   passdb backend. They are in format 'key=value key2=value2 ...'. The values
   can contain <%variables> [Variables.txt].
 * override_fields: Same as default_fields, but instead of providing the
   default values, these values override what the passdb backend returned.

Then we have the settings which specify when the passdb is used:

 * deny: If "yes", used to provide "denied users database". If the user is
   found from the passdb, the authentication will fail.
 * master: If "yes", used to provide <master users database>
   [Authentication.MasterUsers.txt]. The users listed in the master passdb can
   log in as other users.
    * pass: This is an alias for 'result_success = continue' as described
      below. This was commonly used together with master passdb to specify that
      even after a successful master user authentication, the authentication
      should continue to the actual non-master passdb to lookup the user.
 * skip: Do we sometimes want to skip over this passdb?
    * never
    * authenticated: Skip if an earlier passdb already authenticated the user
      successfully.
    * unauthenticated: Skip if user hasn't yet been successfully authenticated
      by the previous passdbs.

And finally we can control what happens when we're finished with this passdb:

 * result_success: What to do if the authentication succeeded (default:
   return-ok)
 * result_failure: What to do if authentication failed (default: continue)
 * result_internalfail: What to do if the passdb lookup had an internal failure
   (default: continue). If any of the passdbs had an internal failure and the
   final passdb also returns "continue", the authentication will fail with
   "internal error".*WARNING*: If multiple passdbs are required (results are
   merged), it's important to set result_internalfail=return-fail to them,
   otherwise the authentication could still succeed but not all the intended
   extra fields are set.

The result values that can be used:

 * return-ok: Return success, don't continue to the next passdb.
 * return-fail: Return failure, don't continue to the next passdb.
 * return: Return earlier passdb's success or failure, don't continue to the
   next passdb. If this was the first passdb, return failure.
 * continue-ok: Set the current authentication state to success, and continue
   to the next passdb.
 * continue-fail: Set the current authentication state to failure, and continue
   to the next passdb.
 * continue: Continue to the next passdb without changing the authentication
   state. The initial state is failure.

(This file was created from the wiki on 2015-05-13 16:45)
