Sends an AUTHENTICATE CRAM-MD5 command.
AUTHENTICATE is actually the name of the IMAP4 command; CRAM-MD5 is the name of a registered SASL authentication mechanism, which is supplied as a parameter to the AUTHENTICATE command. (SASL, described in RFC 2222, means "Simple Authentication and Security Layer".) The CRAM-MD5 authentication mechanism is described in RFC 2195.
CRAM-MD5 is more secure than the PLAIN authentication mechanism because the password is not sent across the network.
Note: Not all IMAP4 servers support the CRAM-MD5 authentication mechanism. If the server supports CRAM-MD5 authentication, it returns AUTH=CRAM-MD5 as a capability in its CAPABILITY response. (See Capability and CapabilityResponse)
| Exception Type | Condition |
|---|---|
| Exception | If a network or protocol error occurs. |
Imap4Client Class | Hunny.Mail Namespace | AuthenticatePlain | RFC 2222: Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) | RFC 2195: IMAP/POP AUTHorize Extension for Simple Challenge/Response