saslauthd works when run 'standalone' but not when run by OmniOS svcadm

If I run saslauthd via svcadm it does not work, but if I run it from the command-line, it does.

u@h:w$ svcadm enable saslauthd                                          
u@h:w$ ps -ef|grep sasl                                                 
    root 17192 14073   0 05:50:12 ?           0:00 /opt/ooce/sbin/saslauthd -a sasldb -c -m /var/run/saslauthd
    root 17194 17102   0 05:50:31 pts/3       0:00 grep sasl
u@h:w$ /opt/ooce/sbin/testsaslauthd -p topsikrit -u imapuser
0: NO "authentication failed"
u@h:w$ svcadm disable saslauthd                                         
u@h:w$ /opt/ooce/sbin/saslauthd -a sasldb -c -d -V -m /var/run/saslauthd
saslauthd :num_procs  : 5
saslauthd :mech_option: NULL
saslauthd :run_path   : /var/run/saslauthd
saslauthd :auth_mech  : sasldb
...

[ switch to another tty]

u@h:w$ /opt/ooce/sbin/testsaslauthd -p topsikrit -u imapuser
0: OK "Success."

The _only difference_, so far as I can see, between the two modes of running of saslauthd is that one was launched by the svcadm framework and the other, from the command line. But the user (root -- despite the $ in the prompt) is the same, and the arguments, (apart from -V and -d) are also the same. So why won't saslauthd authenticate in the first case, but will in the second? The above commands were run in a sparse zone. Everything works as it should if I switch to the _passwd_ mechanism but I would prefer to use _sasldb_.