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Mail-in-a-Box
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=============
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By [@JoshData ](https://github.com/JoshData ) and [contributors ](https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox/graphs/contributors ).
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Mail-in-a-Box helps individuals take back control of their email by defining a one-click, easy-to-deploy SMTP+everything else server: a mail server in a box.
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**Please see [https://mailinabox.email ](https://mailinabox.email ) for the project's website and setup guide!**
* * *
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Our goals are to:
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* Make deploying a good mail server easy.
* Promote [decentralization ](http://redecentralize.org/ ), innovation, and privacy on the web.
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* Have automated, auditable, and [idempotent ](https://web.archive.org/web/20190518072631/https://sharknet.us/2014/02/01/automated-configuration-management-challenges-with-idempotency/ ) configuration.
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* **Not** make a totally unhackable, NSA-proof server.
* **Not** make something customizable by power users.
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Additionally, this project has a [Code of Conduct ](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md ), which supersedes the goals above. Please review it when joining our community.
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The Box
-------
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Mail-in-a-Box turns a fresh Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64-bit machine into a working mail server by installing and configuring various components.
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It is a one-click email appliance. There are no user-configurable setup options. It "just works".
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The components installed are:
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* SMTP ([postfix](http://www.postfix.org/)), IMAP ([dovecot](http://dovecot.org/)), CardDAV/CalDAV ([Nextcloud](https://nextcloud.com/)), and Exchange ActiveSync ([z-push](http://z-push.org/)) servers
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* Webmail ([Roundcube](http://roundcube.net/)), mail filter rules (also using dovecot), and email client autoconfig settings (served by [nginx ](http://nginx.org/ ))
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* Spam filtering ([spamassassin](https://spamassassin.apache.org/)) and greylisting ([postgrey](http://postgrey.schweikert.ch/))
* DNS ([nsd4](https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/projects/nsd/)) with [SPF ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework ), DKIM ([OpenDKIM](http://www.opendkim.org/)), [DMARC ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMARC ), [DNSSEC ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNSSEC ), [DANE TLSA ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS-based_Authentication_of_Named_Entities ), [MTA-STS ](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8461 ), and [SSHFP ](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4255 ) policy records automatically set
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* HTTPS TLS certificates are automatically provisioned using [Let's Encrypt ](https://letsencrypt.org/ ) (needed for webmail, CardDAV/CalDAV, ActiveSync, MTA-STS policy, etc.).
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* Backups ([duplicity](http://duplicity.nongnu.org/)), firewall ([ufw](https://launchpad.net/ufw)), intrusion protection ([fail2ban](http://www.fail2ban.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)), and basic system monitoring ([munin](http://munin-monitoring.org/))
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It also includes system management tools:
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* Comprehensive health monitoring that checks each day that services are running, ports are open, TLS certificates are valid, and DNS records are correct
* A control panel for adding/removing mail users, aliases, custom DNS records, configuring backups, etc.
* An API for all of the actions on the control panel
It also supports static website hosting since the box is serving HTTPS anyway.
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For more information on how Mail-in-a-Box handles your privacy, see the [security details page ](security.md ).
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Installation
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------------
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See the [setup guide ](https://mailinabox.email/guide.html ) for detailed, user-friendly instructions.
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For experts, start with a completely fresh (really, I mean it) Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64-bit machine. On the machine...
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Clone this repository:
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$ git clone https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox
$ cd mailinabox
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_Optional:_ Download Josh's PGP key and then verify that the sources were signed
by him:
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$ curl -s https://keybase.io/joshdata/key.asc | gpg --import
gpg: key C10BDD81: public key "Joshua Tauberer < jt @ occams . info > " imported
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$ git verify-tag v0.46
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gpg: Signature made ..... using RSA key ID C10BDD81
gpg: Good signature from "Joshua Tauberer < jt @ occams . info > "
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg: There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 5F4C 0E73 13CC D744 693B 2AEA B920 41F4 C10B DD81
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You'll get a lot of warnings, but that's OK. Check that the primary key fingerprint matches the
v0.14
v0.14 (November 4, 2015)
------------------------
Mail:
* Spamassassin's network-based tests (Pyzor, others) and DKIM tests are now enabled. (Pyzor had always been installed but was not active due to a misconfiguration.)
* Moving spam out of the Spam folder and into Trash would incorrectly train Spamassassin that those messages were not spam.
* Automatically create the Sent and Archive folders for new users.
* The HTML5_Notifier plugin for Roundcube is now included, which when turned on in Roundcube settings provides desktop notifications for new mail.
* The Exchange/ActiveSync backend Z-Push has been updated to fix a problem with CC'd emails not being sent to the CC recipients.
Calender/Contacts:
* CalDAV/CardDAV and Exchange/ActiveSync for calendar/contacts wasn't working in some network configurations.
Web:
* When a new domain is added to the box, rather than applying a new self-signed certificate for that domain, the SSL certificate for the box's primary hostname will be used instead.
* If a custom DNS record is set on a domain or 'www'+domain, web would not be served for that domain. If the custom DNS record is just the box's IP address, that's a configuration mistake, but allow it and let web continue to be served.
* Accommodate really long domain names by increasing an nginx setting.
Control panel:
* Added an option to check for new Mail-in-a-Box versions within status checks. It is off by default so that boxes don't "phone home" without permission.
* Added a random password generator on the users page to simplify creating new accounts.
* When S3 backup credentials are set, the credentials are now no longer ever sent back from the box to the client, for better security.
* Fixed the jumpiness when a modal is displayed.
* Focus is put into the login form fields when the login form is displayed.
* Status checks now include a warning if a custom DNS record has been set on a domain that would normally serve web and as a result that domain no longer is serving web.
* Status checks now check that secondary nameservers, if specified, are actually serving the domains.
* Some errors in the control panel when there is invalid data in the database or an improperly named archived user account have been suppressed.
* Added subresource integrity attributes to all remotely-sourced resources (i.e. via CDNs) to guard against CDNs being used as an attack vector.
System:
* Tweaks to fail2ban settings.
* Fixed a spurrious warning while installing munin.
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fingerprint in the key details at [https://keybase.io/joshdata ](https://keybase.io/joshdata )
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and on his [personal homepage ](https://razor.occams.info/ ). (Of course, if this repository has been compromised you can't trust these instructions.)
v0.14
v0.14 (November 4, 2015)
------------------------
Mail:
* Spamassassin's network-based tests (Pyzor, others) and DKIM tests are now enabled. (Pyzor had always been installed but was not active due to a misconfiguration.)
* Moving spam out of the Spam folder and into Trash would incorrectly train Spamassassin that those messages were not spam.
* Automatically create the Sent and Archive folders for new users.
* The HTML5_Notifier plugin for Roundcube is now included, which when turned on in Roundcube settings provides desktop notifications for new mail.
* The Exchange/ActiveSync backend Z-Push has been updated to fix a problem with CC'd emails not being sent to the CC recipients.
Calender/Contacts:
* CalDAV/CardDAV and Exchange/ActiveSync for calendar/contacts wasn't working in some network configurations.
Web:
* When a new domain is added to the box, rather than applying a new self-signed certificate for that domain, the SSL certificate for the box's primary hostname will be used instead.
* If a custom DNS record is set on a domain or 'www'+domain, web would not be served for that domain. If the custom DNS record is just the box's IP address, that's a configuration mistake, but allow it and let web continue to be served.
* Accommodate really long domain names by increasing an nginx setting.
Control panel:
* Added an option to check for new Mail-in-a-Box versions within status checks. It is off by default so that boxes don't "phone home" without permission.
* Added a random password generator on the users page to simplify creating new accounts.
* When S3 backup credentials are set, the credentials are now no longer ever sent back from the box to the client, for better security.
* Fixed the jumpiness when a modal is displayed.
* Focus is put into the login form fields when the login form is displayed.
* Status checks now include a warning if a custom DNS record has been set on a domain that would normally serve web and as a result that domain no longer is serving web.
* Status checks now check that secondary nameservers, if specified, are actually serving the domains.
* Some errors in the control panel when there is invalid data in the database or an improperly named archived user account have been suppressed.
* Added subresource integrity attributes to all remotely-sourced resources (i.e. via CDNs) to guard against CDNs being used as an attack vector.
System:
* Tweaks to fail2ban settings.
* Fixed a spurrious warning while installing munin.
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Checkout the tag corresponding to the most recent release:
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$ git checkout v0.46
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Begin the installation.
$ sudo setup/start.sh
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For help, DO NOT contact Josh directly --- I don't do tech support by email or tweet (no exceptions).
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Post your question on the [discussion forum ](https://discourse.mailinabox.email/ ) instead, where maintainers and Mail-in-a-Box users may be able to help you.
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Contributing and Development
----------------------------
Mail-in-a-Box is an open source project. Your contributions and pull requests are welcome. See [CONTRIBUTING ](CONTRIBUTING.md ) to get started.
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The Acknowledgements
--------------------
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This project was inspired in part by the ["NSA-proof your email in 2 hours" ](http://sealedabstract.com/code/nsa-proof-your-e-mail-in-2-hours/ ) blog post by Drew Crawford, [Sovereign ](https://github.com/sovereign/sovereign ) by Alex Payne, and conversations with < a href = "https://twitter.com/shevski" target = "_blank" > @shevski</ a > , < a href = "https://github.com/konklone" target = "_blank" > @konklone</ a > , and < a href = "https://github.com/gregelin" target = "_blank" > @GregElin</ a > .
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Mail-in-a-Box is similar to [iRedMail ](http://www.iredmail.org/ ) and [Modoboa ](https://github.com/tonioo/modoboa ).
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The History
-----------
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* In 2007 I wrote a relatively popular Mozilla Thunderbird extension that added client-side SPF and DKIM checks to mail to warn users about possible phishing: [add-on page ](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/sender-verification-anti-phish/ ), [source ](https://github.com/JoshData/thunderbird-spf ).
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* In August 2013 I began Mail-in-a-Box by combining my own mail server configuration with the setup in ["NSA-proof your email in 2 hours" ](http://sealedabstract.com/code/nsa-proof-your-e-mail-in-2-hours/ ) and making the setup steps reproducible with bash scripts.
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* Mail-in-a-Box was a semifinalist in the 2014 [Knight News Challenge ](https://www.newschallenge.org/challenge/2014/submissions/mail-in-a-box ), but it was not selected as a winner.
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* Mail-in-a-Box hit the front page of Hacker News in [April ](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7634514 ) 2014, [September ](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8276171 ) 2014, [May ](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9624267 ) 2015, and [November ](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13050500 ) 2016.
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* FastCompany mentioned Mail-in-a-Box a [roundup of privacy projects ](http://www.fastcompany.com/3047645/your-own-private-cloud ) on June 26, 2015.
