mailinabox/README.md

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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 <jt@occams.info>" imported
$ git verify-tag v0.45
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
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 <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>.
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.