RFC 1734 (rfc1734) - Page 2 of 5

POP3 AUTHentication command

RFC 1734                       POP3 AUTH                   December 1994


             should reject the AUTH command by sending a negative
             response.

             The authentication protocol exchange consists of a series
             of server challenges and client answers that are specific
             to the authentication mechanism.  A server challenge,
             otherwise known as a ready response, is a line consisting
             of a "+" character followed by a single space and a BASE64
             encoded string.  The client answer consists of a line
             containing a BASE64 encoded string.  If the client wishes
             to cancel an authentication exchange, it should issue a
             line with a single "*".  If the server receives such an
             answer, it must reject the AUTH command by sending a
             negative response.

             A protection mechanism provides integrity and privacy
             protection to the protocol session.  If a protection
             mechanism is negotiated, it is applied to all subsequent
             data sent over the connection.  The protection mechanism
             takes effect immediately following the CRLF that concludes
             the authentication exchange for the client, and the CRLF of
             the positive response for the server.  Once the protection
             mechanism is in effect, the stream of command and response
             octets is processed into buffers of ciphertext.  Each
             buffer is transferred over the connection as a stream of
             octets prepended with a four octet field in network byte
             order that represents the length of the following data.
             The maximum ciphertext buffer length is defined by the
             protection mechanism.

             The server is not required to support any particular
             authentication mechanism, nor are authentication mechanisms
             required to support any protection mechanisms.  If an AUTH
             command fails with a negative response, the session remains
             in the AUTHORIZATION state and client may try another
             authentication mechanism by issuing another AUTH command,
             or may attempt to authenticate by using the USER/PASS or
             APOP commands.  In other words, the client may request
             authentication types in decreasing order of preference,
             with the USER/PASS or APOP command as a last resort.

             Should the client successfully complete the authentication
             exchange, the POP3 server issues a positive response and
             the POP3 session enters the TRANSACTION state.

         Possible Responses:
             +OK maildrop locked and ready
             -ERR authentication exchange failed



Myers