POP3 authentication

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#349

From: Mike Mann
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 00:00

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Life is becoming complicated for developers of POP3 clients.  As well
as the standard USER / PASS clear text scheme, there seem to be
several alternative means of authenticating:

o  The APOP command defined in RFC 1939, which uses encryption based
   on the MD5 algorithm described in RFC 1321.

o  Remote Passphrase Authentication (RPA), described in
   http://www.compuserve.com/rpa/rpadtails.htm, which is now used by
   Compuserve.

o  Secure Password Authentication (SPA) using the AUTH command, which
   is the only authentication method supported by MSN's POP3 servers.

I haven't been able to find any references to SPA although the POP3
AUTH command is described in RFC 1734 which refers to IMAP-AUTH which
seems to be described in RFC 1730 and others.

Can anyone confirm whether SPA on POP3 is indeed the mechanism
described in RFC 1734 and ideally provide some further references?
Any opinions on the likely take-up of the alternative authentication
methods would also be appreciated.

Many thanks and Seasons Greetings.

Regards, Mike.

-- 
Home: mike@kempston.demon.co.uk | kempston@netcomuk.co.uk
PGP 2.6.2i public key available by mail from pgp@kempston.demon.co.uk

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From: mike@kempston.demon.co.uk (Mike Mann)
Subject: POP3 authentication
Date: 1998/01/01
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