Developers • malformed authentication request with python imaplib

Code:

def connect_to_server(imaphost, target_user_email, admin_email, admin_password, used_port):    try:        # Correct authentication format for Zimbra:        auth_string = f"{target_user_email}\x00{admin_email}\x00{admin_password}"        auth_b64 = base64.b64encode(auth_string.encode("utf-8")).decode("utf-8")        connect = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(imaphost, port=used_port)        logging.info(f"Server capabilities: {connect.capabilities}")        # Ensure PLAIN authentication is supported        if "AUTH=PLAIN" not in connect.capabilities:            logging.error("PLAIN authentication is not supported by the server.")            raise Exception("PLAIN authentication is not supported.")        # Authenticate using PLAIN with lambda function        connect.authenticate("PLAIN", lambda _: auth_b64.encode("utf-8"))        logging.info(f"Connected successfully to {target_user_email}")        return connect    except imaplib.IMAP4.error as error:        logging.error(f"IMAP authentication failed: {error}")        raise