[fetchmail]Re: [fetchmail-users] SSL authentication problems with Gmail

[Matthias Andree]

Sebastian Tennant <sebyte@smolny.plus.com> writes:

> Doh!  Just when you think you've wrapped something up...
>
> I didn't attach the init script did I?  I attached my fetchmailrc,
> including my password!
>
> I've changed the password, and there were no other account details
> included, so no harm done... luckily!
>
> Take two.  Init script attached.

OK, that, and the relevant syslog except allow me to write a concluding
report, Sebastian's problems are completely solved.

1. grabbing the certificate from the server dialogue failed; although
   c_rehash had worked properly, it was the wrong certificate
   apparently. ("unable to get local issuer certificate")

   There are certainly people with a deeper understanding of the SSL
   certification process that can explain this better than I can.

2. Debian's ca-certificates package has the Thawte root certificate in
   the default place, this proved sufficient to verify Google's
   certificate (which is signed by Thawte) in fetchmail 6.3.1 even with
   --sslcertck (which I recommend to use, as it's safer).

   NOTE: older fetchmail versions fail to set the SSL default
   certificate path, you must set "--sslcertpath /etc/ssl/certs"
   manually (or whichever the path is; you can also specify this in the
   fetchmailrc file.).

3. Debian's init script diverts logging to syslog by default, and the
   reporter's syslog.conf split error messages out to a separate file,
   where they went unnoticed.
   
   I therefore take the right to advise against using the "=" and "!"
   operators in syslog.conf. "mail.info" is the correct left-hand-side
   to use in syslog.conf for fetchmail 6.2.5.X and 6.3.X.

4. Debian's init script supports an operation "debug-run", which avoids
   syslog, and logs everything on the console in verbose mode. This
   appears to be a simple way to procure all necessary debug information
   on Debian systems.

Happy fetchmailing,

-- 
Matthias Andree