# Client Certificate verification for mail

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/client-certificate-verification-for-mail/220303>\
**Category:** NGINX\
**Created:** [June 5, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/client-certificate-verification-for-mail/220303 "2012-06-05T18:04:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gurdipe\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/b77776/32.png) [@Gurdipe\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Gurdipe_D)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/client-certificate-verification-for-mail/220303/1 "2012-06-05T18:04:48Z")

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Hi NGINX team,

I can read here :  
[http://mailman.nginx.org/pipermail/nginx/2007-March/000825.html](http://mailman.nginx.org/pipermail/nginx/2007-March/000825.html)

and in this thread :  
[http://mailman.nginx.org/pipermail/nginx-ru/2009-July/026304.html](http://mailman.nginx.org/pipermail/nginx-ru/2009-July/026304.html)

that the client certificate verification is not supported by NGINX (and  
that there is no RFE for it).

We want to implement client certificate verification for IMAP and POP  
connection and we plan to rely on NGINX for scalability.

I think that it is possible to implement client certificate verification  
in NGINX but I still need to know :

- if it is a trivial task
- if I can do it only with addons
- why it isn’t already in NGINX core ?

I will apreciate if someone can give me directions on that subject.

Best regards,

Florent

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**Author:** ![Florent\_Manens](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/b38774/32.png) [@Florent\_Manens](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Florent_Manens)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/client-certificate-verification-for-mail/220303/2 "2012-06-05T18:13:34Z")

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Hello!

On Tue, Jun 05, 2012 at 06:04:02PM +0200, Florent Manens wrote:

> [mail ssl](http://mailman.nginx.org/pipermail/nginx-ru/2009-July/026304.html)
> 
> that the client certificate verification is not supported by NGINX (and that  
> there is no RFE for it).
> 
> We want to implement client certificate verification for IMAP and POP connection  
> and we plan to rely on NGINX for scalability.
> 
> I think that it is possible to implement client certificate verification in  
> NGINX but I still need to know :
> 
> - if it is a trivial task

More or less.

> - if I can do it only with addons

No.

> - why it isn’t already in NGINX core ?

The second link (or, rather, Igor’s reply to it) explains the  
reason. It’s more or less useless for large scale installations  
where nginx mail proxy is generally used.

Maxim D.