Due to some significant changes to the Wordpress authentication mechanism, my original IMAP Authentication plugin stopped working in version 2.7.1. I have updated the plugin to work in 2.7.1. The only difference is that users are no longer automatically created in Wordpress if they have a valid IMAP account. I will try to add that back in soon, but for now this will do.
<?php
/*
Plugin Name: IMAP Authentication 2
Version: 1.2
Plugin URI: https://aaronparecki.com/2009/02/13/1/imap-authentication-for-wordpress-2-7-1
Description: Authenticate users using IMAP authentication. For Wordpress 2.7.1
Author: Aaron Parecki
Author URI: http://www.aaronparecki.com
Copyright 2009 by Aaron Parecki  (email : aaron@parecki.com)
    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.
    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.
    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
*/
add_action('admin_menu', array('IMAPAuthentication', 'admin_menu'));
add_action('lost_password', array('IMAPAuthentication', 'disable_password'));
add_action('retrieve_password', array('IMAPAuthentication', 'disable_password'));
add_action('password_reset', array('IMAPAuthentication', 'disable_password'));
add_filter('show_password_fields', array('IMAPAuthentication', 'show_password_fields'));
add_action('wp_authenticate_user', array('IMAPAuthentication', 'authenticate_user'), 1, 2);
add_filter('check_password', array('IMAPAuthentication', 'check_password'), 1, 4);
if( is_plugin_page() ) {
    $mailbox = IMAPAuthentication::get_mailbox();
    $user_suffix = IMAPAuthentication::get_user_suffix();
?>
<div class="wrap">
  <h2>IMAP Authentication Options</h2>
  <form name="imapauthenticationoptions" method="post" action="options.php">
    <?php wp_nonce_field('update-options'); ?>
    <input type="hidden" name="action" value="update" />
    <input type="hidden" name="page_options" value="imap_authentication_mailbox,imap_authentication_user_suffix" />
    <fieldset class="options">
      <table width="100%" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="5" class="form-table">
        <tr valign="top">
        <th width="33%" scope="row"><label for="imap_authentication_mailbox">Mailbox</label></th>
        <td><input name="imap_authentication_mailbox" type="text" id="imap_authentication_mailbox" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($mailbox) ?>" size="80" /><br />eg: {mail.example.com/readonly}INBOX or {mail.example.com:993/ssl/novalidate-cert/readonly}INBOX</td>
        </tr>
        <tr valign="top">
        <th scope="row"><label for="imap_authentication_user_suffix">User Suffix</label></th>
        <td><input name="imap_authentication_user_suffix" type="text" id="imap_authentication_user_suffix" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($user_suffix) ?>" size="50" /><br />A suffix to add to usernames (typically used to automatically add the domain part of the login).<br />eg: @example.com</td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </fieldset>
    <p class="submit">
      <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="<?php _e('Save Changes') ?>" />
    </p>
  </form>
</div>
<?php
}
if( !class_exists('IMAPAuthentication') ) {
    class IMAPAuthentication {
        /*
         * Add an options pane for this plugin.
         */
        function admin_menu() {
            add_options_page('IMAP Authentication', 'IMAP Authentication', 10, __FILE__);
        }
        /*
         * Return the mailbox option from the database, creating the option if it doesn't exist.
         */
        function get_mailbox() {
            global $cache_nonexistantoptions;
            $mailbox = get_settings('imap_authentication_mailbox');
            if (! $mailbox or $cache_nonexistantoptions['imap_authentication_mailbox']) {
                $mailbox = '{localhost:143}INBOX';
                IMAPAuthentication::add_mailbox_option($mailbox);
            }
            return $mailbox;
        }
        /*
         * Add the mailbox option to the database.
         */
        function add_mailbox_option($mailbox) {
            add_option('imap_authentication_mailbox', $mailbox, 'The mailbox to try and log into.');
        }
        /*
         * Return the user_suffix option from the database, creating the option if it doesn't exist.
         */
        function get_user_suffix() {
            global $cache_nonexistantoptions;
            $user_suffix = get_settings('imap_authentication_user_suffix');
            if (! $user_suffix or $cache_nonexistantoptions['imap_authentication_user_suffix']) {
                $user_suffix = '';
                IMAPAuthentication::add_user_suffix_option($user_suffix);
            }
            return $user_suffix;
        }
        /*
         * Add the user_suffix option to the database.
         */
        function add_user_suffix_option($user_suffix) {
            add_option('imap_authentication_user_suffix', $user_suffix, 'A suffix to add to usernames (typically used to automatically add the domain part of the login).');
        }
        // custom error handler
        function eh($type, $msg, $file, $line, $context)
        {
            $error = $error.$msg;
        }
        function authenticate_user(&$user, $password) {
            global $wpdb;
            // Apparently this method is no longer called for users who are not in the WP database
            $mbox = imap_open(IMAPAuthentication::get_mailbox(), $user->user_login.IMAPAuthentication::get_user_suffix(), $password, OP_HALFOPEN|OP_READONLY) or $error = imap_last_error();
            if ($mbox) {
                $userInfo = get_userdatabylogin($user->user_login);
                imap_close($mbox);
                return new WP_User($userInfo->ID);
            } else {
                do_action( 'wp_login_failed', $user->user_login );
                return new WP_Error('incorrect_password', __('<strong>ERROR</strong>: Incorrect password. '.$error));
            }
        }
        function check_password($unknown, $enteredPassword, $storedPassword, $userID) {
            $user = new WP_User($userID);
            return IMAPAuthentication::authenticate_user($user, $enteredPassword);
        }
        /*
         * Used to disable certain login functions, e.g. retrieving a
         * user's password.
         */
        function disable_password() {
            login_header('Login', '<p class="message"><strong>ERROR</strong>: You can\'t do that here. This blog uses the IMAP login mechanism. Your password is set with your email account.</p>', 'error');
            die();
        }
        /*
         * Used to disable certain display elements, e.g. password
         * fields on profile screen.
         */
        function show_password_fields($username) {
            return false;
        }
    }
}
?>
