The IMAP Preprocessor
| Note | This section applies to Snort 2 preprocessors. For information on Snort 3 inspectors, see https://www.cisco.com/go/snort3-inspectors. | 
The Internet Message Application Protocol (IMAP) is used to
		retrieve email from a remote IMAP server. The IMAP preprocessor inspects
		server-to-client IMAP4 traffic and, when associated preprocessor rules are
		enabled, generates events on anomalous traffic. The preprocessor can also
		extract and decode email attachments in client-to-server IMAP4 traffic and send
		the attachment data to the rules engine. You can use the 
		file_data keyword in
		an intrusion rule to point to the attachment data.
	 
Extraction and decoding include multiple attachments, when present, and large attachments that span multiple packets.