Re: IMAP...

[Kurt Lieber <debian@kirpatrick.com>]

On Monday 29 October 2001 11:19 am, Alexander Wallace wrote:

> I understand Imap encripts passwords right? and I should use it instead of
> pop?

IMAP does NOT encrypt passwords.  It has one (minor) security advantage over 
POP3 in that it only sends your password once to establish a connection, and 
then maintains that connection until you break it (usually by closing your 
mail client) where POP3 sends your password each and every time you check 
mail.  However, both send passwords in clear text.

If you want to encrypt your mail password, you can tunnel POP3 and/or IMAP 
over SSH and obtain end-to-end encryption that way. 

If you're interested (or anyone else, for that matter), I've written a short 
document that discusses how to do this.  It's geared towards the ISP I use 
(pair.com) but it should be enough to get you going in most situations.   
Email me off list if you want a copy. There's also another miniHOWTO out 
there that discusses getting email over ssh.   Secure POP via SSH mini-HOWTO 
by Manish Singh

hth

--kurt