Some older Microsoft MUAs, such as Outlook Express 4, do not support the RFC standard syntax for publishing SMTP AUTH support in the EHLO response. Instead of "AUTH sasl-method sasl-method ...", OE4 looks for "AUTH=sasl-method sasl-method ...". If it doesn't see it, it won't attempt to authenticate.

Including an AUTH= line in the EHLO response would make exim non-RFC-compliant, so there is no option to make it do so. The best solution is to require your users to upgrade their MUA. There are many good reasons not to be running such an old, insecure, buggy client. However, if that is not possible for some reason, it is possible to "trick" exim into returning the necessary AUTH= line.

Just add the following to the end of your list of authenticators:

bogus:
  driver        = plaintext
  public_name   = "\r\n250-AUTH=PLAIN LOGIN"
  server_prompts = :
  server_condition = no

This assumes you have implemented both PLAIN and LOGIN authenticators - if you haven't, include only the one you implemented in the public_name string. Also, if your existing plaintext authenticators are published conditionally, make sure you apply the same conditions to the bogus authenticator. For example, if you don't advertise plaintext authenticators on non-encrypted connections (a good idea, that), you'll have a line like this in your PLAIN and/or LOGIN authenticators, and should add it to the bogus authenticator as well:

server_advertise_condition = ${if def:tls_cipher}

Finally, it is very important that this be the last authenticator in the begin authenticators section. Otherwise, any authenticators that follow it would only be published on the AUTH= line.

CategoryHowTo