Dovecot Permission denied

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Recently I got Dovecot Permission denied error
Jan 09 10:43:15 imap([email protected])<764608><vjwbhPBH+F3F2nS+>: Error: Mailbox INBOX: open(/home/exampleuser/mail/example.com/usermailbox/dovecot.index.log) fa
iled: Permission denied (euid=1008(exampleuser) egid=8(mail) missing +r perm: /home/exampleuser/mail/example.com/usermailbox/dovecot.index.log

from no where while researching found these solutions that i would like to share for anyone with the same issue by the checking the permission that where the user was changing to a number all the time and thanks Sahsanu post Exim not listening on external IP for port 587 - #13 by sahsanu realized what was wrong. these are the steps I had to take in detail :

What namei -mo is showing you is permissions on each path component.
The only difference between your current output and the desired one is here:

CURRENT:
drwxr-x--x root root exampleuser
drwxr-x--x root root mail

DESIRED:
drwxr-xr-x root root exampleuser
drwxr-xr-x root root mail

So you just need to add read permission (r) for “others” on two directories.

What to change

:one: Fix /home/exampleuser permissions

Current:

drwxr-x--x root root /home/exampleuser

Desired:

drwxr-xr-x root root /home/exampleuser

Run:

sudo chmod o+r /home/exampleuser

:two: Fix /home/exampleuser/conf/mail permissions

Current:

drwxr-x--x root root /home/exampleuser/conf/mail

Desired:

drwxr-xr-x root root /home/exampleuser/conf/mail

Run:

sudo chmod o+r /home/exampleuser/conf/mail

:white_check_mark: Verify

After that, check again:

namei -mo /etc/exim4/domains/example.com/passwd

You should now see exactly:

drwxr-xr-x root root exampleuser
drwxr-xr-x root root mail

:locked_with_key: Why this matters (Exim/Dovecot context)

  • Exim (Debian-exim) needs execute (x) + read (r) on all parent directories to reach:

    /home/exampleuser/conf/mail/example.com/passwd

  • Without r on those directories, Exim can fail authentication with vague errors.

Your file ownership and permissions here are already correct and secure:

-rw-rw---- dovecot mail passwd

No need to change that :+1:

:magnifying_glass_tilted_left: What the error means (line by line)

stat(.../.Drafts/tmp) failed: Permission denied

Dovecot tried to access the tmp directory inside .Drafts.

euid=1008(exampleuser) egid=8(mail)

Dovecot is running as:

  • user: exampleuser

  • group: mail

missing +x perm: /home/exampleuser/mail/example.com/usermailbox/.Drafts

:right_arrow: Execute (x) permission is missing on .Drafts

dir owned by 770:8 mode=0700

  • Owner UID 770 (not exampleuser!)

  • Group mail (8)

  • Permissions 0700 → only the owner can access

So even though the group is correct, group has zero permissions.

:white_check_mark: Correct & secure permissions for Maildir

Maildir rule (important)

Every directory in a Maildir must have x permission for the user/group accessing it.

Standard, safe setup:

  • Owner: mailbox owner

  • Group: mail

  • Mode: 0770 (or 0750)

:hammer_and_wrench: FIX (recommended)

:one: Fix ownership of the mailbox

The UID 770 is wrong. The mailbox should belong to exampleuser.

sudo chown -R exampleuser:mail /home/exampleuser/mail/example.com/usermailbox

:two: Fix permissions on all Maildir folders

sudo find /home/exampleuser/mail/example.com/usermailbox -type d -exec chmod 0770 {} \;

This ensures:

  • owner = full access

  • group = full access

  • others = no access (secure)

:three: Fix files permissions (important)

sudo find /home/exampleuser/mail/example.com/usermailbox -type f -exec chmod 0660 {} \;

:repeat_button: Restart services

sudo systemctl restart dovecot
sudo systemctl restart exim4

:white_check_mark: Verify

Check the problematic directory:

namei -mo /home/exampleuser/mail/example.com/usermailbox/.Drafts/tmp

You should see:

drwxrwx--- exampleuser mail .Drafts
drwxrwx--- exampleuser mail tmp

Hope this helps.