Installation examples / basic installation

Basic installation

Examples Postfix Ubuntu

(Source: ubuntu postfix documentation)

Installation

To install postfix run the following command:

sudo apt install postfix

Simply press return when the installation process asks questions, the configuration will be done in greater detail in the next stage.

Basic Configuration

To configure postfix, run the following command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure postfix

The user interface will be displayed. On each screen, select the following values:

1. Internet Site
2. mail.example.com
3. steve
4. mail.example.com, localhost.localdomain, localhost
5. No
6. 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128 192.168.0.0/24
7. 0
8. +
9. all

Replace mail.example.com with the domain for which you'll accept email, 192.168.0.0/24 with the actual network and class range of your mail server, and steve with the appropriate username.

Now is a good time to decide which mailbox format you want to use. By default Postfix will use mbox for the mailbox format. Rather than editing the configuration file directly, you can use the postconf command to configure all postfix parameters. The configuration parameters will be stored in /etc/postfix/main.cf file. Later if you wish to re-configure a particular parameter, you can either run the command or change it manually in the file.

To configure the mailbox format for Maildir:

sudo postconf -e 'home_mailbox = Maildir/'

This will place new mail in /home/username/Maildir so you will need to configure your MDA to use the same path.

SMTP Authentication

SMTP-AUTH allows a client to identify itself through an authentication mechanism (SASL). TLS should be used to encrypt the authentication process. Once authenticated the SMTP server will allow the client to relay mail.

1. Configure Postfix for SMTP-AUTH using SASL (Dovecot SASL):

   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot'
   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_path = private/auth'
   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_local_domain ='
   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous'
   sudo postconf -e 'broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes'
   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes'
   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_recipient_restrictions = \\
     permit_sasl_authenticated,permit_mynetworks,reject_unauth_destination'
   

   The smtpd_sasl_path configuration is a path relative to the Postfix queue directory.

2. Next, generate or obtain a digital certificate for TLS. See Certificates for details. This example also uses a Certificate Authority (CA). For information on generating a CA certificate see Certification Authority.

   Note

   MUAs connecting to your mail server via TLS will need to recognize the certificate used for TLS. This can either be done using a certificate from a commercial CA or with a self-signed certificate that users manually install/accept. For MTA to MTA TLS certficates are never validated without advance agreement from the affected organizations. For MTA to MTA TLS, unless local policy requires it, there is no reason not to use a self-signed certificate. Refer to Creating a Self-Signed Certificate for more details.

3. Once you have a certificate, configure Postfix to provide TLS encryption for both incoming and outgoing mail:

   sudo postconf -e 'smtp_tls_security_level = may'
   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_security_level = may'
   sudo postconf -e 'smtp_tls_note_starttls_offer = yes'
   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/server.key'
   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/server.crt'
   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_loglevel = 1'
   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_received_header = yes'
   sudo postconf -e 'myhostname = mail.example.com'
   

4. If you are using your own Certificate Authority to sign the certificate enter:

   sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_CAfile = /etc/ssl/certs/cacert.pem'
   

   Note

   Again, for more details about certificates see Certificates.

After running all the commands, Postfix is configured for SMTP-AUTH and a self-signed certificate has been created for TLS encryption.

Now, the file /etc/postfix/main.cf should look like this:

# See /usr/share/postfix/main.cf.dist for a commented, more complete
# version
smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu)
biff = no
# appending .domain is the MUA's job.
append_dot_mydomain = no
# Uncomment the next line to generate "delayed mail" warnings
#delay_warning_time = 4h
myhostname = server1.example.com
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
myorigin = /etc/mailname
mydestination = server1.example.com, localhost.example.com, localhost
relayhost =
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8
mailbox_command = procmail -a "$EXTENSION"
mailbox_size_limit = 0
recipient_delimiter = +
inet_interfaces = all
smtpd_sasl_local_domain =
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes
smtpd_recipient_restrictions =
permit_sasl_authenticated,permit_mynetworks,reject \_unauth_destination
smtpd_tls_auth_only = no
smtp_tls_security_level = may
smtpd_tls_security_level = may
smtp_tls_note_starttls_offer = yes
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/smtpd.key
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/smtpd.crt
smtpd_tls_CAfile = /etc/ssl/certs/cacert.pem
smtpd_tls_loglevel = 1
smtpd_tls_received_header = yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_timeout = 3600s
tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom

The postfix initial configuration is complete. Run the following command to restart the postfix daemon:

sudo systemctl restart postfix.service

Postfix supports SMTP-AUTH as defined in RFC2554. It is based on SASL. However it is still necessary to set up SASL authentication before you can use SMTP-AUTH.

Example EXIM Ubuntu

(Source: ubuntu exim documentation)

Installation

To install exim4, run the following command:

sudo apt install exim4

Configuration

To configure Exim4, run the following command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

The user interface will be displayed. The user interface lets you configure many parameters. For example, In Exim4 the configuration files are split among multiple files. If you wish to have them in one file you can configure accordingly in this user interface.

All the parameters you configure in the user interface are stored in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf file. If you wish to re-configure, either you re-run the configuration wizard or manually edit this file using your favorite editor. Once you configure, you can run the following command to generate the master configuration file:

sudo update-exim4.conf

The master configuration file, is generated and it is stored in /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.

At any time, you should not edit the master configuration file, /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated manually. It is updated automatically every time you run update-exim4.conf

You can run the following command to start Exim4 daemon.

sudo systemctl start exim4.service

SMTP Authentication

This section covers configuring Exim4 to use SMTP-AUTH with TLS and SASL.

The first step is to create a certificate for use with TLS. Enter the following into a terminal prompt:

sudo /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/examples/exim-gencert

Now Exim4 needs to be configured for TLS by editing /etc/exim4/conf.d/main/03_exim4-config_tlsoptions add the following:

MAIN_TLS_ENABLE = yes

Next you need to configure Exim4 to use the saslauthd for authentication. Edit /etc/exim4/conf.d/auth/30_exim4-config_examples and uncomment the plain_saslauthd_server and login_saslauthd_server sections:

plain_saslauthd_server:
  driver = plaintext
  public_name = PLAIN
  server_condition = ${if saslauthd{{$auth2}{$auth3}}{1}{0}}
  server_set_id = $auth2
  server_prompts = :
  .ifndef AUTH_SERVER_ALLOW_NOTLS_PASSWORDS
  server_advertise_condition = ${if eq{$tls_cipher}{}{}{*}}
  .endif

#
login_saslauthd_server:
  driver = plaintext
  public_name = LOGIN
  server_prompts = "Username:: : Password::"
  # don't send system passwords over unencrypted connections
  server_condition = ${if saslauthd{{$auth1}{$auth2}}{1}{0}}
  server_set_id = $auth1
  .ifndef AUTH_SERVER_ALLOW_NOTLS_PASSWORDS
  server_advertise_condition = ${if eq{$tls_cipher}{}{}{*}}
  .endif

Additionally, in order for outside mail client to be able to connect to new exim server, new user needs to be added into exim by using the following commands.

sudo /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/examples/exim-adduser

Users should protect the new exim password files with the following commands.

sudo chown root:Debian-exim /etc/exim4/passwd
sudo chmod 640 /etc/exim4/passwd

Finally, update the Exim4 configuration and restart the service:

sudo update-exim4.conf
sudo systemctl restart exim4.service

Customizations

Postfix

Source: https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Postfix/

Authentication on the smarthost

However, if the SMTP server on the smart host requires a password to send the mail, the newly created configuration /etc/postfix/main.cf must be edited again and these lines inserted:

smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
# noplaintext leave, if passwords have to be transferred in plain text:
# (not recommended, only if it does not work differently)
smtp_sasl_security_options = noplaintext noanonymous
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_password

As shown in the configuration file, Postfix retrieves the access data from the file /etc/postfix/sasl_password or from a database that is generated from the sasl_password. The file should preferably be created with the following command, otherwise conversion into a database is not always possible. You have to open a terminal window[2] and enter the following command:

sudo touch /etc/postfix/sasl_password

Now you write your data according to the following pattern in the file

smtp.mailanbieter.de username:securepassword

So that not everyone can read the password, you should limit the permissions of the file (possibly this ist o be repeated for backup copies or the database created below):

sudo chmod 600 /etc/postfix/sasl_password

Now the database has to be created:

sudo postmap hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_password

Then you have to restart postfix:

sudo /etc/init.d/postfix restart

EXIM

Help Source: https://wiki.debian.org/Exim

Example-Source: https://somoit.net/linux/linux-exim-authenticated-and-tls-mail-through-smarthost

If it is necessary to configure exim by editing the config file (instead of using dpkg-reconfigure), these are the related values:

dc_eximconfig_configtype='satellite'
dc_smarthost='smtp.bilbokoudala.lan::587'

Configure credentials to authenticate

Exim has a password file called passwd.client that allows configurin a list of credentials associated to each smarthost. In debian 9, for example, the full path is /etc/exim4/passwd.client

Edit the file to add the credentials

# password file used when the local exim is authenticating to a remote
# host as a client.
#
# see exim4_passwd_client(5) for more documentation
#
# Example:
### target.mail.server.example:login:password
smtp.domain.com:smtpuser:smtppassword

last updated: 2024-04-18 01:42