PHPList does not smtp auth

ℹ️ Support
1

Hi,
i have the following Setup

  • Apache2
  • PHPlist (newest)
  • Postfix
  • Dovecot (to receive bounces)

Postfix is configured to do an SASL Login via dovecot-imap to authenticate sending users. Thats working with most of the common mail clients.
If i will send out not a Mailing, PHPList has to auth too, but exactly that is not working. I set all neccesary flags in config.php including username and password for smtp auth.
The connection starts, but the auth does not work.

Mail log shows me:

Apr  1 17:35:10 nlsmtp01 dovecot: imap-login: Disconnected: Connection closed (no auth attempts in 0 secs): user=<>, rip=127.0.0.1, lip=127.0.0.1, TLS, session=<Q0U5SLkxvK9/AAAB>

So there is no username nor password transmittet. TLS is working fine as it looks like.

define("PHPMAILERHOST",'localhost');
define('PHPMAILERPORT',993);
define("PHPMAILER_SECURE",'ssl');
$phpmailer_smtpuser = 'my@username';
$phpmailer_smtppassword = 'My_PaSsWoRd';

I tried to activate SMTP Debug, but i dont see anything more if i bump the sending process on console.
Is there anything i can do else? I need just a clue about the right point i should search for.

Thanks alot

BoneCracker

2

I don’t understand what you mean by this but if you enable SMTP debug then you need to send a test email when composing and the debug output will then be at the top of the page

define('PHPMAILER_SMTP_DEBUG', 4);

Is 993 the correct port? I would expect it to be either 465 or 587.

3

Hi Duncan,

yes the port is correct. Im working since many years with PHPList … guess it must be since 2012 :slight_smile: I also administer all types of Servers. This Port is absolutely correct as you can see in the mail.log. Connection gets established, but there is no username nor password transmitted.
I will try tomorrow morning (now its 7pm in the evening).
I tried to process the queue just at console. But i guess you mention i should do it via the web interface, right?
Tomorrow i will give you a feedback. There must be something wrong in my setup making this not work.

Cu later and thank you for your response.

Bone

4

Good Morning Duncan,

now i found how to debug ghe SMTP context. It was never needed before so i had to struggle a little.
As a result, i got the following log:

2025-04-02 05:52:35 Connection: opening to ssl://my-server:993, timeout=5, options=array()
2025-04-02 05:52:35 Connection: opened
2025-04-02 05:55:35 SERVER -> CLIENT: * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE LITERAL+ AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN] Dovecot (Ubuntu) ready.* BYE Disconnected for inactivity.
2025-04-02 05:55:35 Connection: closing due to error
2025-04-02 05:55:35 Connection: closed
SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting

As you can see, there is no auth by PHPList. I feed the config.php with $phpmailer_smtpuser and $phpmailer_smtppassword, but nothing happens there.
This i can also see in the mail.log as described above.

Do we have a chance to get this running?
Until your answer, i will search for a possible solution with PHPMailer.

CU and thanks

Bone

5

Hi again,
i tried with port 587 and got a different error.

2025-04-02 06:24:46 Connection: opening to ssl://my-server:587, timeout=5, options=array()
2025-04-02 06:24:46 Connection failed. Error #2: stream_socket_client(): SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages:error:0A00010B:SSL routines::wrong version number [/var/www/admin/PHPMailer6/src/SMTP.php line 389]
2025-04-02 06:24:46 Connection failed. Error #2: stream_socket_client(): Failed to enable crypto [/var/www/admin/PHPMailer6/src/SMTP.php line 389]
2025-04-02 06:24:46 Connection failed. Error #2: stream_socket_client(): Unable to connect to ssl://my-server:587 (Unknown error) [/var/www/admin/PHPMailer6/src/SMTP.php line 389]
2025-04-02 06:24:46 SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: (0)
SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting

Thats something strange for me.
I will look deeper into the auth for Postfix/Dovecot now.

Bone

6

Okay … there was something not okay with my Postfix/Dovecot installation. I fixed via $mynetworks and some other little adjustments.

Thank you for reading and helping out.

Bone