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chrelad / n3

pop3 server for node.js

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N3

N3 is an experimental POP3 server for node.js. It doesn't actually fetch any real mail messages but is able to send arbitrary data in the form of e-mail messages to any POP3 enabled e-mail client. For example latest Twitter messages or blog posts etc.

The demo server (pop3_server.js) currently sends the same message with every request as a new message (with minor changes though).

Secured connections

N3 supports both unencrypted connections on port 110 and encrypted TLS connections on port 995. STARTTLS encryption support for port 110 is also supported. See pop3_server.js for examples.

Authentication

N3 supports following authentication mechanisms:

  • USER
  • APOP
  • AUTH PLAIN
  • AUTH CRAM-MD5

Authentication system is extendable by allowing to add new methods to the SASL AUTH command.

For example to add a method FOOBAR (taken from pop3_server.js):

// AUTH FOOBAR user pass
N3.extendAUTH("FOOBAR",function(authObj){
    var params = authObj.params.split(" "),
        user = params[0],
        pass = params[1];

    if(!user) // username is not set
        return "-ERR Authentication error. FOOBAR expects <user> <password>"

    return authObj.check(user, pass);
});

When the client asks for server capabilities with CAPA, the SASL response will be

CLIENT: CAPA
SERVER: ...
SERVER: SASL PLAIN CRAM-MD5 FOOBAR

The client is then able to log in with the method FOOBAR which expects username and password for its parameters

CLIENT: AUTH FOOBAR andris 12345
SERVER: +OK You are now logged in

See sasl.js for more complex examples - PLAIN and CRAM-MD5 (APOP and USER are built in methods and do not go through the SASL AUTH interface).

Usage

  1. To use the server you need to create certificate files for TLS secure connections. Create privatekey.pem and certificate.pem with

    openssl genrsa -out privatekey.pem 1024
openssl req -new -key privatekey.pem -out certrequest.csr
openssl x509 -req -in certrequest.csr -signkey privatekey.pem -out certificate.pem

    There are already example certificate files in "/cert" for a kickstart installation but you should probably still genereate your own.

  2. Copy privatekey.pem and certificate.pem to "/cert" (overwrite the sample certificate files)

  3. Run pop3_server.js and add a POP3 account to your e-mail client pointing to the node.js server. With the demo script usernames don't matter, any name goes, but the password needs to be 12345

    node pop3_server.js

For example, if you run pop3_server.js in localhost then the incoming settings should be something like:

protocol: pop3
server: localhost
port: 110 (or 995 for TLS)
username: anything_goes
password: 12345

NB! Some clients (iPhone) require valid SMTP server in order to add a new account. You can use any valid SMTP server.

License

MIT. If you make any impromevents to the POP3 server code, then it would be nice to push the changes to here also (waiting for improvements to the protocol, new authentication methods etc.).

NB

libssl-dev package should be installed before building node.js from the source, otherwise crypto and thus TLS might not work

Make sure that port 110 and 995 (-if secure connections are allowed) are open for incoming connections!

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pop3 server for node.js