MKPOP3DCERT(8)

💖 MKPOP3DCERT 💖

okay so real quick before we get into it — yes this is mkpop3dcert, and it lives in the mkpop3dcert(8) section of the manual (the sysadmin one, you know the vibe), lovingly written by S. Varshavchik. she's a little scripty bestie who makes you a test certificate. that's it. that's the whole job. let's go. ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

mkpop3dcert — create a test SSL certificate for POP3 over SSL 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

/usr/sbin/mkpop3dcert

like literally no arguments. she just works. main character energy fr fr 💅

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so bestie, here's the tea: POP3 over SSL needs a valid, signed, X.509 certificate. non-negotiable. it's giving ✨credential✨

the default place she looks for that certificate file is:

• /etc/courier/pop3d.pem

and mkpop3dcert generates a self-signed X.509 certificate — which is mainly for testing, bestie, i cannot stress this enough 🙈. for actual production use, the X.509 certificate must be signed by a recognized certificate authority, because otherwise your mail clients will just straight up not accept the certificate. it's giving "rejected at the door" 💀

also, permission check incoming:

/etc/courier/pop3d.pem must be owned by the courier user and have no group or world permissions.

and yes, mkpop3dcert will enforce that. she's not playing around. 🔥

and to prevent an unfortunate accident (you know the kind 😭), mkpop3dcert will not work if /etc/courier/pop3d.pem already exists. no overwriting. no chaos. she said "not on my watch" 👑

one more thing, queen: mkpop3dcert requires OpenSSL to be installed. no OpenSSL, no certificate, no slay. 🧚

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💖 FILES 💖

• /etc/courier/pop3d.pem — the X.509 certificate. the moment. the icon. 🎀
• /etc/courier/pop3d.cnf — parameters used by OpenSSL to create the X.509 certificate. the blueprint bestie ✨

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• courier(8)[1] — go read her too, she's iconic 🫶

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🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

Sam Varshavchik

• Author 💜

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⭐ NOTES ⭐

1. courier(8) https://www.courier-mta.org/courier.html

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okay that's the whole page, bestie, you ate that 🍓 iykyk

and for the credits roll: this little legend comes to you from the Courier Mail Server, dated 01/10/2026, filed under MKPOP3DCERT(8). go make that test cert, no cap. 💅✨🦋