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In this topic, we will discuss Set Up Postfix MTA and IMAP/POP3 in Linux. In order to send an email from our CentOS 7 server, we will need the setup to configure a modern Mail Transfer Agent (MTA). Mail Transfer Agent is the daemon responsible for sending outbound mail for system users or corporate Internet Domains via SMTP.

It is worth noting, this tutorial only teaches the process of setting up the daemon for local use. We do not go into detail about advanced configuration for setting up an MTA for business operations. This is a combination of many skills including but not limited to DNS, getting a static routable IP address that is not blacklisted, and configuring advanced security and service settings. In short, this tutorial is meant to familiarize you with the basic configuration. Do not use this tutorial for the MTA configuration of an Internet-facing host.

With its combined focus on both security and ease of administration, we have chosen Postfix as the MTA for this tutorial. The default MTA installed in the older versions of CentOS is Sendmail. Sendmail is a great MTA. However, of the author’s humble opinion, Postfix hits a sweet spot when addressing the following notes for an MTA. With the most current version of CentOS, Postfix has superseded Sendmail as the default MTA.

Postfix is a widely used and well-documented MTA. It is actively maintained and developed. It requires minimal configuration in mind (this is just email) and is efficient with system resources (again, this is just email).

Step 1 − Install Postfix from YUM Package Manager.

[root@centos]# yum -y install postfix

Step 2 − Configure Postfix config file.

The Postfix configuration file is located in: /etc/postfix/main.cf

In a simple Postfix configuration, the following must be configured for a specific host: hostname, domain, origin, inet_interfaces, and destination.

Configure the hostname − The hostname is a fully qualified domain name of the Postfix host. In the OpenLDAP chapter, we named the CentOS box: centos on the domain vmnet.local. Let’s stick with that for this chapter.

# The myhostname parameter specifies the internet hostname of this
# mail system. The default is to use the fully-qualified domain name
# from gethostname(). $myhostname is used as a default value for many
# other configuration parameters.
#
myhostname = centos.vmnet.local

Configure the domain − As stated above, the domain we will be using in this tutorial is vmnet.local

# The mydomain parameter specifies the local internet domain name.
# The default is to use $myhostname minus the first component.
# $mydomain is used as a default value for many other configuration
# parameters.
#
mydomain = vmnet.local

Configure the origin − For a single server and domain set up, we just need to uncomment the following sections and leave the default Postfix variables.

# SENDING MAIL
#
# The myorigin parameter specifies the domain that locally-posted
# mail appears to come from. The default is to append $myhostname,
# which is fine for small sites.  If you run a domain with multiple
# machines, you should (1) change this to $mydomain and (2) set up
# a domain-wide alias database that aliases each user to
# user@that.users.mailhost.
#
# For the sake of consistency between sender and recipient addresses,
# myorigin also specifies the default domain name that is appended
# to recipient addresses that have no @domain part. 
#
myorigin = $myhostname
myorigin = $mydomain

Configure the network interfaces − We will leave Postfix listening on our single network interface and all protocols and IP Addresses associated with that interface. This is done by simply leaving the default settings enabled for Postfix.

# The inet_interfaces parameter specifies the network interface
# addresses that this mail system receives mail on.  By default,
# the software claims all active interfaces on the machine. The
# parameter also controls delivery of mail to user@[ip.address].
#
# See also the proxy_interfaces parameter, for network addresses that
# are forwarded to us via a proxy or network address translator.
#
# Note: you need to stop/start Postfix when this parameter changes. 
#
#inet_interfaces = all
#inet_interfaces = $myhostname
#inet_interfaces = $myhostname, localhost
#inet_interfaces = localhost
# Enable IPv4, and IPv6 if supported
inet_protocols = all

Step 3 − Configure SASL Support for Postfix.

Without SASL Authentication support, Postfix will only allow sending emails from local users. Or it will give a relaying denied error when the users send emails away from the local domain.

Note − SASL or Simple Application Security Layer Framework is a framework designed for authentication supporting different techniques amongst different Application Layer protocols. Instead of leaving authentication mechanisms up to the application layer protocol, SASL developers (and consumers) leverage current authentication protocols for higher-level protocols that may not have the convenience or more secure authentication (when speaking of access to secured services) built-in.

Install the “cyrus-sasl* package

[root@centos]# yum -y install  cyrus-sasl 
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks 
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile 
 * base: repos.forethought.net 
 * extras: repos.dfw.quadranet.com 
 * updates: mirrors.tummy.com 
Package cyrus-sasl-2.1.26-20.el7_2.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Nothing to do

Configure /etc/postfix/main.cf for SASL Auth

smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtpd_recipient_restrictions =
permit_mynetworks,permit_sasl_authenticated,reject_unauth_destination
smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot
smtpd_sasl_path = private/auth

My SASL Options in main.conf

##Configure SASL Options Entries:
smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smptd_recipient_restrictions =
permit_mynetworks,permit_sasl_authenticated,reject_unauth_destination
smtp_sasl_type = dovecot
smtp_sasl_path = private/auth/etc

Step 4 − Configure FirewallD to allow incoming SMTP Services.

[root@centos]# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=smtp 
success

[root@centos]# firewall-cmd --reload 
success

[root@centos]#

Now let’s check to make sure our CentOS host is allowing and responding to the requests on port 25 (SMTP).

Nmap scan report for 172.16.223.132 
Host is up (0.00035s latency). 
Not shown: 993 filtered ports 
PORT    STATE  SERVICE 
   20/tcp  closed ftp-data 
   21/tcp  open   ftp 
   22/tcp  open   ssh 
   25/tcp  open   smtp 
   80/tcp  open   http 
   389/tcp open   ldap 
   443/tcp open   https 
MAC Address: 00:0C:29:BE:DF:5F (VMware)

As you can see, SMTP is listening and the daemon is responding to the requests from our internal LAN.

Install Dovecot IMAP and POP3 Server

Dovecot is a secure IMAP and POP3 Server designed to handle incoming mail needs of a smaller to larger organization. Due to its prolific use with CentOS, we will be using Dovecot as an example of installing and configuring an incoming mail server for CentOS and MTA SASL Provider.

As noted previously, we will not be configuring MX records for DNS or creating secure rules allowing our services to handle mail for a domain. Hence, just setting these services up on an Internet-facing host may leave leverage room for security holes w/o SPF Records.

Step 1 − Install Dovecot.

[root@centos]# yum -y install dovecot

Step 2 − Configure dovecot.

The main configuration file for dovecot is located at: /etc/dovecot.conf. We will first back up the main configuration file. It is a good practice to always backup configuration files before making edits. This way id (for example) line breaks get destroyed by a text editor, and years of changes are lost. Reverting is easy as copying the current backup into production.

Enable protocols and daemon service for dovecot

# Protocols we want to be serving. 
protocols = imap imaps pop3 pop3s

Now, we need to enable the dovecot daemon to listen on startup −

[root@localhost]# systemctl start  dovecot 
[root@localhost]# systemctl enable dovecot

Let’s make sure Dovecot is listening locally on the specified ports for: imap, pop3, imap secured, and pop3 secured.

[root@localhost]# netstat -antup | grep dovecot 
 tcp        0        0 0.0.0.0:110        0.0.0.0:*        LISTEN        4368/dovecot
 tcp        0        0 0.0.0.0:143        0.0.0.0:*        LISTEN        4368/dovecot
 tcp        0        0 0.0.0.0:993        0.0.0.0:*        LISTEN        4368/dovecot
 tcp        0        0 0.0.0.0:995        0.0.0.0:*        LISTEN        4368/dovecot
 tcp6       0        0 :::110                :::*          LISTEN        4368/dovecot
 tcp6       0        0 :::143                :::*          LISTEN        4368/dovecot
 tcp6       0        0 :::993                :::*          LISTEN        4368/dovecot
 tcp6       0        0 :::995                :::*          LISTEN        4368/dovecot

[root@localhost]#

As seen, dovecot is listening on the specified ports for IPv4 and IPv4.

Now, we need to make some firewall rules.

[root@localhost]# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=110/tcp 
success
 
[root@localhost]# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=143/tcp 
success
 
[root@localhost]# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=995/tcp 
success
 
[root@localhost]# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=993/tcp 
success
 
[root@localhost]# firewall-cmd --reload 
success
 
[root@localhost]#

Our incoming mail server is accepting requests for POP3, POP3s, IMAP, and IMAPs to hosts on the LAN.

Port Scanning host: 192.168.1.143

   Open TCP Port:   21          ftp 
   Open TCP Port:   22          ssh 
   Open TCP Port:   25          smtp 
   Open TCP Port:   80          http 
   Open TCP Port:   110         pop3 
   Open TCP Port:   143         imap 
   Open TCP Port:   443         https 
   Open TCP Port:   993         imaps 
   Open TCP Port:   995         pop3s 

In this section, we will learn about Set Up Postfix MTA and IMAP/POP3. To know more click here.