auth/flat_file
January 2, 2026 ยท View on GitHub
The auth/flat_file plugin allows you to create a file containing username and password combinations, and have relaying users authenticate from that file.
Note that passwords are stored in clear-text, so this may not be a great idea for large scale systems. However the plugin would be a good start for someone looking to implement authentication using some other form of auth.
Security - it is recommended to switch to auth-encfile to protect your user credentials.
IMPORANT NOTE - this plugin requires that STARTTLS be used via the tls plugin before it will advertise AUTH capabilities by the EHLO command. Localhost and IPs in RFC1918 ranges are exempt from this rule.
Configuration
Configuration is stored in config/auth_flat_file.ini.
- [core]methods
Authentication methods are listed in the [core]methods parameter. Authentification methods are comma separated. Currently supported methods are: CRAM-MD5, PLAIN and LOGIN. The PLAIN and LOGIN methods are insecure and require TLS to be enabled.
- [core]constrain_sender: (default: true). For outbound messages (due to successful AUTH), constrain the envelope sender (MAIL FROM) to the same domain as the authenticated user. This setting, combined with
rate_rcpt_senderin the limit plugin can dramatically reduce the amount of backscatter and spam sent when an email account is compromised.
Example:
[core]
methods=PLAIN,LOGIN,CRAM-MD5
constrain_sender=true
Users are stored in the [users] section.
Example:
[users]
user1=password1
user@domain.com=password2