algodas writes:

For starters, group+world writable is a bad idea. Terrible idea.

Furthermore, the above does not really indicate which option you have selected. In fact, none of the three options mentioned in the INSTALL file would result in something like this.

This is not complicated. This is standard UNIX file permission configuration issue. UNIX permissions have worked the same way for forty years now. If you do not understand how process/file permissions work, then there are plenty of tutorials and FAQs on the web that explain how they work.

maildrop's INSTALL file says:

NOTE:

When using the standalone maildrop build with courier-authlib, one of the following configurations must be used:

* Your mail server must invoke maildrop as the root user (the -d flag reads the mail account's uid and gid, then drops root) . * Manually change the permissions on the maildrop binary to be setuid root. * Manually change the permissions on the courier-authlib's socket directory (/usr/local/var/spool/authdaemon by default) to be globally readable or executable.

This does not mean that you get to randomly pick one of these three options. The correct option depends on how you have your system accounts and your mail server configured. maildrop must be able to contact courier-authlib's socket, and, after obtaining the account details, be able to change its uid and gid to the account's uid and gid, then change to the account's home directory and maildir. Therefore, either you must arrange for maildrop to have root privileges, or all all your mail accounts must use the same virtual uid and gid, maildrop must get invoked by your mail server using the global uid and gid, and courier-authlib's socket directory must similarly be searchable by this uid and gid.

If you still do not understand this, you should not just randomly change the permissions on maildrop binary, to see what works, or what does not. Mail system security is very important, and you must understand exactly how process and file permissions work, on UNIX, before proceeding any further.

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