Dovecot

Warning:

This page is a work in progress and is not completed. Important informations might be missing or wrong.

Install

# apt install dovecot-imapd dovecot-managesieved

Configuration

Create System User

User vmail will be used to store mail related data

# adduser --system --home /var/vmail/ --uid 800 --group vmail
Adding system user `vmail' (UID 800) ...
Adding new group `vmail' (GID 800) ...
Adding new user `vmail' (UID 800) with group `vmail' ...
Creating home directory `/var/vmail/' ...

If the command complains about the UID or GID being in use, just increment the number. It can be anything between 500 and 999.

Authentication

Activate

Edit file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-auth.conf and make sure the only included authentication mechanism is passwdfile.

#!include auth-deny.conf.ext
#!include auth-master.conf.ext

#!include auth-system.conf.ext
#!include auth-sql.conf.ext
#!include auth-ldap.conf.ext
!include auth-passwdfile.conf.ext
#!include auth-checkpassword.conf.ext
#!include auth-vpopmail.conf.ext
#!include auth-static.conf.ext

Edit file /etc/dovecot/conf.d/auth-passwdfile.conf.ext and set option default_fields

# Authentication for passwd-file users. Included from 10-auth.conf.
#
# passwd-like file with specified location.
# <doc/wiki/AuthDatabase.PasswdFile.txt>

passdb {
  driver = passwd-file
  args = scheme=CRYPT username_format=%u /etc/dovecot/users
}

userdb {
  driver = passwd-file
  args = username_format=%u /etc/dovecot/users

  # Default fields that can be overridden by passwd-file
  #default_fields = quota_rule=*:storage=1G
  default_fields = uid=vmail gid=vmail home=/var/vmail/%u

  # Override fields from passwd-file
  #override_fields = home=/home/virtual/%u
}

Create file /etc/dovecot/users

# touch /etc/dovecot/users
# chmod 640 /etc/dovecot/users
# chown root:dovecot /etc/dovecot/users

Add a User

First generate an encrypted password for the user

$ doveadm pw -s SHA512-CRYPT
Enter new password: 
Retype new password: 
{SHA512-CRYPT}$6$o5TBpwJqGhEgsq3G$YGUPIDDkAJGaRYdMrW4kNWQzEyCwyeJAxnnyyphcR8MjPUo4yzUNy55sgAP0Qx73CI72XzUqIFGlKUvir7QkR1

Now add a line to /etc/dovecot/users

# Format is <user>:<password>::::::
# Generate passwords with: doveadm pw -s SHA512-CRYPT
vincent:{SHA512-CRYPT}$6$o5TBpwJqGhEgsq3G$YGUPIDDkAJGaRYdMrW4kNWQzEyCwyeJAxnnyyphcR8MjPUo4yzUNy55sgAP0Qx73CI72XzUqIFGlKUvir7QkR1::::::

Mail Storage

Configuration of the mail storage is done in /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf

mail_location = mdbox:~/mdbox

Fail2Ban

Create file /etc/fail2ban/jail.d/dovecot.conf with the following content

[dovecot]
enabled  = true