Can't use 'none' DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION

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AI-generated summary

Users are discussing an issue with configuring Discourse to send emails without SMTP authentication by setting DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: 'none' in app.yml. Despite following documentation and trying various configurations, users encounter errors like wrong authentication type none or SMTP-AUTH requested but missing secret phrase. anthony-o initially struggles with the setup but eventually resolves it by using the rebuild command and ensuring all other SMTP-related settings are commented out. homebrewhops confirms that commenting out other SMTP parameters is key to making it work. The issue appears to stem from Discourse’s default authentication behavior when other settings are present.

1

According to GitHub - discourse/discourse: A platform for community discussion. Free, open, simple. · GitHub, I should be able to set DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: 'none' in the env: section of my app.yml configuration file in order to “completely disable authentication”.

I’m trying to deploy Discourse inside an organization with a private email server which allows to send email from specific IPs internally but requires the applications to disable authentication when talking to it.

When I set DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: 'none' or DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: none in my app.yml, I obtain those errors in shared/standalone/log/rails/production.log:

Sent mail to me@myserver.tld (3.7ms)
Job exception: wrong authentication type none

It seems that I’m not the only one to have this bug.

2

I have also tested to comment DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME setting like said here without any success (I still have the same error message).

3

I have a very similar setup and use these settings:

  ## TODO: The mailserver this Discourse instance will use
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: mail.my.organization.com # (mandatory)
  #DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 587                        # (optional)
  #DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: user@example.com      # (optional)
  #DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: pa$$word               # (optional)
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false           # (optional, default true)
4

Same here. We have no auth set up for email (at least as far as Discourse is concerned).

5

And did you (@jomaxro or @fefrei) updated your Discourse instance since November 22, 2016?
Because @iarwain seems to have the same problem as me since this date and says it was working previously.

The only difference I can see between your configuration and mine is that I did not comment DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT. I will try this tomorrow (hoping that port 25 is the default one).

6

Yes. I’ve updated my instance many times since then - we’re on the absolute latest version of Discourse.

Edit: Let me SSH in and grab my config for you. One moment.

Edit 2: @anthony-o here you go:

## TODO: The SMTP mail server used to validate new accounts and send notifications
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: mail.rpi.edu         # required
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 25                        # (optional, default 587)
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: *redacted*      # required
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: *redacted*               # required, WARNING the char '#' in pw can cause problems!
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: true           # (optional, default true)

Note: Our SMTP server requires authentication to work, but because our Discourse instance in on a subdomain which doesn’t have an account that works for mail (mismatch in domains), we got a special IP based exception on the mail server from the postmaster.

7

My Discourse installs closely follow the latest beta.

8

I haven’t tinkered with it for a while, I’ll need to try it again with the latest.

Last time I investigated, RoR’s ActionMailer::Base would only work without authentication if its :authentication settings field was not defined. However, if my memory serves me well, Discourse would pass it :plain by default when the DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME and DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD were not defined.

Again, I haven’t touched it since mid-November, I’ll check it again in the coming days.

9

I did a try with Discourse 1.3.10 (docker version) and I can confirm it’s now working for me as well, with the same configuration file as before.

10

So here are my tests.

DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.server.tld
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 25
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: myusername@server.tld
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: none
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: ""
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false           # (optional, default true)

Here the error is “Job exception: SMTP-AUTH requested but missing secret phrase”.

DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.server.tld
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 25
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: myusername@server.tld
DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: none
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: ""
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false           # (optional, default true)

Here the error is “Job exception: wrong authentication type none”.

DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.server.tld
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 25
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: myusername@server.tld
DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: ""
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: ""
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false           # (optional, default true)

Here it’s back to “Job exception: SMTP-AUTH requested but missing secret phrase”.

DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.server.tld
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 25
DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: myusername@server.tld
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: ""
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: ""
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false           # (optional, default true)

Same error “Job exception: SMTP-AUTH requested but missing secret phrase”.

DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.server.tld
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 25
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: myusername@server.tld
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: ""
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: ""
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false           # (optional, default true)

Same error.

DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.server.tld
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 25
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: myusername@server.tld
DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: 'none'
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: ""
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false           # (optional, default true)

Back to “Job exception: wrong authentication type none”.

DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.server.tld
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 25
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: myusername@server.tld
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: 'none'
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: "none"
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false           # (optional, default true)

Here I’ve got “Job exception: 504 5.7.4 Unrecognized authentication type” (that’s at least a reply of the SMTP server I suppose).

DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.server.tld
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 25
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: myusername@server.tld
#DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: 'none'
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: "none"
DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false           # (optional, default true)

Same error as last one.

So I’m a bit confused, I think there is really a bug in Discourse that doesn’t support real none authentication type.
@jomaxro, I’m sure that you didn’t defined DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION so plain is used, and that means that your SMTP server accepts any authentication (username / password) from the Discourse host, am I wrong?

11

I’ve checked that other topic and what @NULLpointer suggested doesn’t seem to work anymore (at least, it is not working for me now).
It seems that @snarke and @homebrewhops had once the same requirement, are you guys up to date with the latest Discourse version and still use a SMTP server without any authentication?

12

OK - so you’re right at the limit of my email knowledge here…if I recall correctly (and there’s no guarantee of that), our SMTP server does not require authentication, however, something will block all email that isn’t properly authenticated (with username/password) or coming from a whitelisted IP.

13

At last I’ve managed to make it working!

For my configuration tests I was using the following command:

sudo ./launcher destroy app && sudo ./launcher start app

I’ve finally executed the rebuild command

sudo ./launcher rebuild app

with the following configuration (all other non displayed DISCOURSE_SMTP_* parameter were commented)

DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.server.tld
DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: none
DISCOURSE_SMTP_OPENSSL_VERIFY_MODE: none

and the mail was finally sent, so I could continue my installation!

14

Thank you @anthony-o!!

The key was: (all other non displayed DISCOURSE_SMTP_ parameter were commented)*

DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.server.tld
DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 25
DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: none
DISCOURSE_SMTP_OPENSSL_VERIFY_MODE: none
15

This is an old thread but I am trying to do the same, to force Discourse to not authenticate to send email using a smart host ( Smtp Server accepting Relay from Discourse IP).