Mail-in-a-Box ============= By [@JoshData](https://github.com/JoshData) and [contributors](https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox/graphs/contributors). 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. **Please see [https://mailinabox.email](https://mailinabox.email) for the project's website and setup guide!** * * * Our goals are to: * Make deploying a good mail server easy. * Promote [decentralization](http://redecentralize.org/), innovation, and privacy on the web. * Have automated, auditable, and [idempotent](https://web.archive.org/web/20190518072631/https://sharknet.us/2014/02/01/automated-configuration-management-challenges-with-idempotency/) configuration. * **Not** make a totally unhackable, NSA-proof server. * **Not** make something customizable by power users. Additionally, this project has a [Code of Conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md), which supersedes the goals above. Please review it when joining our community. The Box ------- 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. It is a one-click email appliance. There are no user-configurable setup options. It "just works". The components installed are: * 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 * Webmail ([Roundcube](http://roundcube.net/)), mail filter rules (also using dovecot), email client autoconfig settings (served by [nginx](http://nginx.org/)) * 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 * TLS certificates automatically provisioned [Let's Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/) * 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/)) It also includes system management tools: * 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. For more information on how Mail-in-a-Box handles your privacy, see the [security details page](security.md). Installation ------------ See the [setup guide](https://mailinabox.email/guide.html) for detailed, user-friendly instructions. For experts, start with a completely fresh (really, I mean it) Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64-bit machine. On the machine... Clone this repository: $ git clone https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox $ cd mailinabox _Optional:_ Download Josh's PGP key and then verify that the sources were signed by him: $ curl -s https://keybase.io/joshdata/key.asc | gpg --import gpg: key C10BDD81: public key "Joshua Tauberer " imported $ git verify-tag v0.45 gpg: Signature made ..... using RSA key ID C10BDD81 gpg: Good signature from "Joshua Tauberer " 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 You'll get a lot of warnings, but that's OK. Check that the primary key fingerprint matches the fingerprint in the key details at [https://keybase.io/joshdata](https://keybase.io/joshdata) and on his [personal homepage](https://razor.occams.info/). (Of course, if this repository has been compromised you can't trust these instructions.) Checkout the tag corresponding to the most recent release: $ git checkout v0.45 Begin the installation. $ sudo setup/start.sh For help, DO NOT contact Josh directly --- I don't do tech support by email or tweet (no exceptions). 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. 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. The Acknowledgements -------------------- 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 @shevski, @konklone, and @GregElin. Mail-in-a-Box is similar to [iRedMail](http://www.iredmail.org/) and [Modoboa](https://github.com/tonioo/modoboa). The History ----------- * 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). * 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. * 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. * 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. * FastCompany mentioned Mail-in-a-Box a [roundup of privacy projects](http://www.fastcompany.com/3047645/your-own-private-cloud) on June 26, 2015.