Archive for October, 2006

Memeagain

October 21st, 2006

Damn you Lovitt :)

My earliest memory is… a birthday party. I don’t know whose…

At high school I… didn’t like much and school least of all.

My first relationship was…confusing and conducted with limited English.

I wish I’d never worn…yellow skivvies.

My mother told me…to always wear clean underwear and brush my teeth.

I wish I had…more time, more money and less work.

My most humiliating moment was…a zipper accident at a young age.

At home I cook…pasta, salads … I am trying to be healthy.

My last meal would be…chicken kiev and a garden salad (no cucumber).

I’m very bad at…not caring.

When I was a child…I liked blowing things up.

The book that changed my life is…Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien.

It’s not fashionable, but I love… really bad high school movies.

Friends say I am…drunk.

The song I’d like played at my funeral is… Paul Kelly Wintercoat and Jeff Buckley’s cover of Grace.

If only I could… stop smoking.

The last big belly laugh I had was… whilst so tired at work I could barely think.

What I don’t find amusing is…the current government.

I’m always being asked…if I am serious.

If I wasn’t me…I’d be very confused.

At the moment I’m listening to…Bruce Campbell discussing morality.

My favourite work of art is…Modigliani’s Anna.

If I were a car I’d get…poor miles per gallon.

I often wonder…why I keep doing these damn things.

Added CRAM-MD5 howto to Dovecot Wiki

October 18th, 2006

Warning: array_keys() [function.array-keys]: The first argument should be an array in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1310

Warning: shuffle() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1311

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1312

I added my CRAM-MD5 with Dovecot HOWTO to the Dovecot Wiki at http://wiki.dovecot.org/CRAM-MD5.

auth_smtpd with CRAM-MD5

October 17th, 2006

Warning: array_keys() [function.array-keys]: The first argument should be an array in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1310

Warning: shuffle() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1311

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1312

I updated the auth_smtpd plug-in for qpsmtpd to also support CRAM-MD5 authentication. I initially was sitting puzzling about how to do so when I realised there was also an auth plugin hook for CRAM-MD5 already defined. Duh. So now fixed and on the Wiki – http://wiki.qpsmtpd.org/auth_smtpd. Even seems to work.

CRAM-MD5 authentication with Dovecot IMAP

October 16th, 2006

Warning: array_keys() [function.array-keys]: The first argument should be an array in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1310

Warning: shuffle() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1311

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1312

I recently migrated my IMAP server from Courier-IMAP to Dovecot. It’s part of a whole simplification process I am engaging in. I cut-over the IMAP server and then last week enabled the Dovecot authentication in Postfix to allow me to stop using a separate SASL daemon for authentication. Now both SMTP and IMAP are authenticated from the one source – Dovecot.

But one thing I discovered when setting up Dovecot is that there is very limited documentation on using CRAM-MD5 authentication with Dovecot. As a result I am going to quickly document the process I used to get this up and running.

Firstly you need to enable the mechanism and specify a passwd database file in Dovecot. The mechanism and passdb file are specified in the dovecot.conf configuration file, on my system this is located in the /usr/local/etc/ directory.

auth default {
# Space separated list of wanted authentication mechanisms:
# plain login digest-md5 cram-md5 ntlm rpa apop anonymous gssapi
mechanisms = plain login cram-md5

# passwd-like file with specified location
passdb passwd-file {
# Path for passwd-file
args = /etc/cram-md5.pwd
}

….

}

I’ve added the cram-md5 mechanism to the mechanisms statement and then added a passdb file, /etc/cram-md5.pwd.

Next, you need to create this passdb file and set appropriate permissions.

# touch /etc/cram-md5.pwd
# chmod 0600 /etc/cram-md5.pwd

After creating the file you need to add your users and hashed passwords to the passdb file. The users and passwords are added in the format:

user:passwordhash

Dovecot has a utility that allows you to convert passwords to the appropriate hashes. This utility is called dovecotpw and is installed into the /usr/local/sbin directory or is available in the source package in the src/util directory. You can run dovecotpw like so:

# dovecotpw
Enter new password:
Retype new password:
{HMAC-MD5}26b633ec8bf9dd526293c5897400bddeef9299fad

Enter the user’s password when prompted and it will be converted and outputted as a hash. The default hashed output is in the HMAC-MD5 scheme (which is appropriate for CRAM-MD5). You can change the scheme of the outputted hashes using the -s command line switch. Now add the generated password to the passdb file, /etc/cram-md5.pwd.

kartar:{HMAC-MD5}26b633ec8bf9dd526293c5897400bddeef9299fad

Finally, restart Dovecot and test authentication by enabling the appropriate mechanism in your email client. For example, to enable CRAM-MD5 authentication in Thunderbird you need to check the “Use secure authentication” checkbox in the Account Settings page.

Obviously I recommend that you use TLS/SSL to encrypt the authentication process as well.

Shopgirl *yawn*

October 8th, 2006

Warning: array_keys() [function.array-keys]: The first argument should be an array in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1310

Warning: shuffle() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1311

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1312

Just finished watching Shopgirl. It was fairly disappointing. Some barely there performances from Clare Danes and Steve Martin – Martin doing a Bill Murray in Broken Flowers inpersonation in parts. Danes virtually telephoned her performance in but then I’ve been disappointed in her recently. After all this is the woman who had the chance to destroy Ben Lee’s musical career by breaking his heart and reducing him to a broken, suicidal mess. Instead we get Catch My Disease. For shame Clare. Jason Schwartzman makes some effort to redeem things but seems to have little to work with in between bouts of what appeared to be Lithium-fueled facial expressions. Overall annoying, especially as Martin’s book was quite good.

Ana Matronic

October 6th, 2006

Warning: array_keys() [function.array-keys]: The first argument should be an array in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1310

Warning: shuffle() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1311

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1312

Ana Matronic from the Scissor Sisters is really rather foxy. Okay – nothing to see hear – move along – this is not the blogpost you are looking for – move along…

Subject matter experts

October 6th, 2006

Warning: array_keys() [function.array-keys]: The first argument should be an array in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1310

Warning: shuffle() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1311

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/kartar/www/www/wp-content/plugins/simple-tags/inc/client.php on line 1312

I found Julie Bishop’s rant about education and the need for a Federal Board of Studies fascinating. I don’t really have opinion either way on what should be taught – I think kids today have bigger problems than curriculum alone when it comes to understanding why there are issues in education. But what I found interesting was the idea that someone who is not a subject matter expert on the education system can make sweeping claims about the education system and people have to respond as if that person has a clue. Julie Bishop isn’t a teacher, she’s never worked in a school – she’s an ex-lawyer (managing partner no less) from Clayton Utz. She attended Harvard and I’d be surprised if she’d stepped foot in a public school during her entire education.

The same applies to Tony Abbot – the man makes sweeping claims about medicine, medical research and ethics whilst having zero expertise in the area. He’s not a Doctor, not a medical researcher or an ethicist. Indeed in the arena of his opinions on abortion – he can’t have one in the first place. But yet off he rants – solely basing his opinion on his religious beliefs and the confused ideas of an occasionally morally bankrupt archaic theological quagmire we like to call the Catholic Church.

If i can draw a parralel to the corporate world – when you select a CFO or a CIO – you choose someone who knows somethng about the job – who has worked in the field, probably has qualifications in the area and understands the field in detail. Why? Because they have a clue. The same goes for the medical world – personally I’d prefer a qualified professional treating me for some illness instead of some quack faith healer.

I guess what annoys me is that too many Minister use their portfolios as their personal soap-boxes and as forums in which to advance their own personal beliefs instead of what is best for the people they are supposed to be representing. I don’t particularly care that Tony Abbot is Catholic – personally I don’t like the Catholic Church but I’ve got nothing against Catholics in general – but I do care if as the Health Minister Tony Abbot advances his religious beliefs as fact/policy rather than the far more factual opinions of actual medical professionals. As should Julie Bishop refrain from attempting to advance her own ideological objectives and rather actually try to do something practical about education – say like funding schools and reducing class sizes and providing additional support for those children that need it.