[olug] POP3 SSL

Aaron Grothe grothe at earthlink.net
Tue Sep 5 19:36:01 UTC 2000


Hi,

Phil Brutsche wrote:

> A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far way, someone said...
>
> > That's not exactly it...I have been told that you can actually use the
> > SSL POP3 access in Netscape Mail for example to actually SSL into a
> > POP mail server...I was wondering if it is actually worth looking into
> > for setting up a secure mail server...
>
> I've seen some commercial mail systems that do POP3 over SSL.  I've never
> seen any pre-packaged OSS software that does that.

I believe the major reasons are the RSA patent which expires in a couple of
weeks fortunately and export restrictions.  With the patent expiring
September 20.  I would expect to see an OSS SSL pop-3 mail server probably a
mod to qpopper before the end of  October.  Also, with the revision of export
restrictions it is a whole new world with regards to cryptography in a couple
of weeks.

> Some ideas:
>  * Try custom compiling some POP3 daemons (ie qpopper) from source - one
>    might have SSL as a compile-time option.

Qpopper currently doesn't have a ssl option.  Would anyone else be interested
in possibly starting up a sourceforge project to do this?  I don't believe
the work would be that difficult.  Provided we start after Sept. 20 :-)

>
>  * Search for sslwrap on freshmeat.  It's a SSL wrapper for non-SSL
>    programs.  It might do what you want.

Regards,

Aaron
====
"The Journey is the Reward" - Old Zen Buddhist Saying


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