# Dovecot Master User: Access user's mailbox without owner's password.

iRedMail-0.8.6 and later releases have Dovecot Master User enabled for all backends (OpenLDAP, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL) by default, what you need to do is adding new master user.

Dovecot is configured to query master user accounts from file `/etc/dovecot/dovecot-master-users, you can update this file to add or remove master user.

The format is simple:

    username:password

You can generate a password supported by Dovecot first. for example, SSHA512. Let's generate password hash for our password `my_master_password`:

    # doveadm pw -s SSHA512
    Enter new password: my_master_password
    Retype new password: my_master_password
    {SSHA512}B0VHomJaMk6aLXOPglgNgJtCUA8JRnOweAwJxRW6NPWSNZ25rG/L6T05DJXH+t8WCQkemBilgkcEi6mq4Kadssivtts=

You can now pick up any username you like, for example, `my_master_user@not-exist.com`. Now add new master user in file `/etc/dovecot/dovecot-master-users` like below:

    my_master_user@not-exist.com:{SSHA512}B0VHomJaMk6aLXOPglgNgJtCU...

Now you can access `user@domain.ltd`'s mailbox (via either IMAP or POP3 protocol) as user `user@domain.ltd*my_master_user@not-exist.com` with password `my_master_password` with Roundcube webmail (it should work with other MUAs).

WARNING:

- Make sure file `/etc/dovecot/dovecot-master-users` is owned by Dovecot daemon user and group, with file permission `0500`, so that others cannot view the file content.

  - on Linux/FreeBSD, Dovecot daemon user/group is `dovecot/dovecot`.
  - on OpenBSD, Dovecot daemon user/group is `_dovecot/_dovecot`.

- If you don't append a (non-exist) mail domain name in Dovecot Master User account, Dovecot will use the domain name of your login username. For example, if your real user is `myuser@mydomain.com`, when you try to access this user's mailbox as Dovecot Master User `myuser@mydomain.com*my_master_user`, it will trigger Dovecot to verify user `my_master_user@mydomain.com` which doesn't exist on your server, then this login attempt fails.

## Troubleshooting

If it doesn't work for you, please enable debug mode in Dovecot and check its log file. If you don't understand what the log says, please create a new topic in our forum and paste related log:

- Debug Dovecot
- iRedMail online support forum

## References

- Dovecot wiki: Master users/passwords