the imap & smtp servers now allow logging in with tls client authentication and
the "external" sasl authentication mechanism. email clients like thunderbird,
fairemail, k9, macos mail implement it. this seems to be the most secure among
the authentication mechanism commonly implemented by clients. a useful property
is that an account can have a separate tls public key for each device/email
client. with tls client cert auth, authentication is also bound to the tls
connection. a mitm cannot pass the credentials on to another tls connection,
similar to scram-*-plus. though part of scram-*-plus is that clients verify
that the server knows the client credentials.
for tls client auth with imap, we send a "preauth" untagged message by default.
that puts the connection in authenticated state. given the imap connection
state machine, further authentication commands are not allowed. some clients
don't recognize the preauth message, and try to authenticate anyway, which
fails. a tls public key has a config option to disable preauth, keeping new
connections in unauthenticated state, to work with such email clients.
for smtp (submission), we don't require an explicit auth command.
both for imap and smtp, we allow a client to authenticate with another
mechanism than "external". in that case, credentials are verified, and have to
be for the same account as the tls client auth, but the adress can be another
one than the login address configured with the tls public key.
only the public key is used to identify the account that is authenticating. we
ignore the rest of the certificate. expiration dates, names, constraints, etc
are not verified. no certificate authorities are involved.
users can upload their own (minimal) certificate. the account web interface
shows openssl commands you can run to generate a private key, minimal cert, and
a p12 file (the format that email clients seem to like...) containing both
private key and certificate.
the imapclient & smtpclient packages can now also use tls client auth. and so
does "mox sendmail", either with a pem file with private key and certificate,
or with just an ed25519 private key.
there are new subcommands "mox config tlspubkey ..." for
adding/removing/listing tls public keys from the cli, by the admin.
needed for upcoming changes, where (now) package admin needs to import package
store. before, because package store imports mox- (for accessing the active
config), that would lead to a cyclic import. package mox- keeps its active
config, package admin has the higher-level config-changing functions.
this allows removing some ugly instantiations of an rng based on the current
time.
Intn is now IntN for our concurrency-safe prng wrapper to match the randv2 api.
v2 exists since go1.22, which we already require.
if files {webmail,webaccount,webadmin}.{css,js} exist in the configdir (where
the mox.conf file lives), their contents are included in the web apps.
the webmail now uses css variables, mostly for colors. so you can write a
custom webmail.css that changes the variables, e.g.:
:root {
--color: blue
}
you can also look at css class names and override their styles.
in the future, we may want to make some css variables configurable in the
per-user settings in the webmail. should reduce the number of variables first.
any custom javascript is loaded first. if it defines a global function
"moxBeforeDisplay", that is called each time a page loads (after
authentication) with the DOM element of the page content as parameter. the
webmail is a single persistent page. this can be used to make some changes to
the DOM, e.g. inserting some elements. we'll have to see how well this works in
practice. perhaps some patterns emerge (e.g. adding a logo), and we can make
those use-cases easier to achieve.
helps partially with issue #114, and based on questions from laura-lilly on
matrix.
was encountered during smtp session. but could also happen for imapserver and
webmail.
in smtpserver, we now log error messages for smtp errors that cause us to print
a stack trace. would have made logging output more helpful (without having to
turn on trace-level logging).
hopefully solves issue #238 by mwyvr, thanks for reporting!
instead of failing the connection because no certificates are available.
this may improve interoperability. perhaps the remote smtp client that's doing
the delivery will decide they do like the tls cert for our (mx) hostname after
all.
this only applies to incoming smtp deliveries. for other tls connections
(https, imaps/submissions and imap/submission with starttls) we still cause
connections for unknown sni hostnames to fail. if case no sni was present, we
were already falling back to a cert for the (listener/mx) hostname, that
behaviour hasn't changed.
for issue #206 by RobSlgm
before, the suggested records would show "v=spf1 mx ~all", while the dnscheck
page would suggest "v=spf1 ip4:... ip6:... -all".
the two places now show the same record: explicitly listing the configured ip's
(so the common case of a valid message is fast and doesn't require lookups of
mx hosts and their addresses), but still including "mx" (may prevent issues
while migrating to new ips in the future and doesn't hurt for legit messages),
and "~all" (for compatibility with some old systems that don't look at
dkim/dmarc when they evaluate spf and reach "-all")
based on #176 created by rdelaage, with record mismatch spotted by RobSlgm,
thanks!
per listener, you could enable the admin/account/webmail/webapi handlers. but
that would serve those services on their configured paths (/admin/, /,
/webmail/, /webapi/) on all domains mox would be webserving, including any
non-mail domains. so your www.example/admin/ would be serving the admin web
interface, with no way to disabled that.
with this change, the admin interface is only served on requests to (based on
Host header):
- ip addresses
- the listener host name (explicitly configured in the listener, with fallback
to global hostname)
- "localhost" (for ssh tunnel/forwarding scenario's)
the account/webmail/webapi interfaces are served on the same domains as the
admin interface, and additionally:
- the client settings domains, as optionally configured in each Domain in
domains.conf. typically "mail.<yourdomain>".
this means the internal services are no longer served on other domains
configured in the webserver, e.g. www.example.org/admin/ will not be handled
specially.
the order of evaluation of routes/services is also changed:
before this change, the internal handlers would always be evaluated first.
with this change, only the system handlers for
MTA-STS/autoconfig/ACME-validation will be evaluated first. then the webserver
handlers. and finally the internal services (admin/account/webmail/webapi).
this allows an admin to configure overrides for some of the domains (per
hostname-matching rules explained above) that would normally serve these
services.
webserver handlers can now be configured that pass the request to an internal
service: in addition to the existing static/redirect/forward config options,
there is now an "internal" config option, naming the service
(admin/account/webmail/webapi) for handling the request. this allows enabling
the internal services on custom domains.
for issue #160 by TragicLifeHu, thanks for reporting!
in quickstart, add troubleshooting hints.
in suggested dns records, explain the multiline long dkim record should
probably be converted into a single string.
the quickstart output is quite long already. i'm hoping for a "mox setup" in
the future where we help a user step-by-step to a fully working system. we'll
have more space to prevent hints and check the settings after a user made
changes. it's on the roadmap.
based on issues #158 and #164, thanks vipas84 and RobSlgm for reporting and
discussion.
recreating the account would resurface the old messages, certainly not what you'ld expect.
it's about time to just remove the files. we do ask admins to confirm that when
removing through admin interface. it's also in the "mox config account rm" help
output now.
for issue #162 by RobSlgm with feedback from x8x, thanks!
unless the address is the last member, then the admin must either remove the
alias first, or add new members. we don't want to accidentally remove an alias
address.
in the admin page for removing addresses, we warn the admin that the address
will be removed from any aliases.
the members must currently all be addresses of local accounts.
a message sent to an alias is accepted if at least one of the members accepts
it. if no members accepts it (e.g. due to bad reputation of sender), the
message is rejected.
if a message is submitted to both an alias addresses and to recipients that are
members of the alias in an smtp transaction, the message will be delivered to
such members only once. the same applies if the address in the message
from-header is the address of a member: that member won't receive the message
(they sent it). this prevents duplicate messages.
aliases have three configuration options:
- PostPublic: whether anyone can send through the alias, or only members.
members-only lists can be useful inside organizations for internal
communication. public lists can be useful for support addresses.
- ListMembers: whether members can see the addresses of other members. this can
be seen in the account web interface. in the future, we could export this in
other ways, so clients can expand the list.
- AllowMsgFrom: whether messages can be sent through the alias with the alias
address used in the message from-header. the webmail knows it can use that
address, and will use it as from-address when replying to a message sent to
that address.
ideas for the future:
- allow external addresses as members. still with some restrictions, such as
requiring a valid dkim-signature so delivery has a chance to succeed. will
also need configuration of an admin that can receive any bounces.
- allow specifying specific members who can sent through the list (instead of
all members).
for github issue #57 by hmfaysal.
also relevant for #99 by naturalethic.
thanks to damir & marin from sartura for discussing requirements/features.
instead of skipping on any smtp and delivering messages to accounts.
we dial the ip of the smtp listener, which is localhost:1025 by default.
the smtp server now uses a mock dns resolver during spf & dkim verification for
hosted domains (localhost by default), so they should pass.
the advantage is that we get regular full smtp server behaviour for delivering
in localserve, including webhooks, and potential first-time sender delays
(though this is disabled by default now).
incoming deliveries now go through normal address resolution, where before we
would always deliver to mox@localhost. we still accept email for unknown
recipients to mox@localhost.
this will be useful upcoming alias/list functionality.
localserve will now generate a dkim key when creating a new config. existing
users may wish to reset (remove) their localserve directory, or add a dkim key.
if the message has a list-id header, we assume this is a (mailing) list
message, and we require a dkim/spf-verified domain (we prefer the shortest that
is a suffix of the list-id value). the rule we would add will mark such
messages as from a mailing list, changing filtering rules on incoming messages
(not enforcing dmarc policies). messages will be matched on list-id header and
will only match if they have the same dkim/spf-verified domain.
if the message doesn't have a list-id header, we'll ask to match based on
"message from" address.
we don't ask the user in several cases:
- if the destination/source mailbox is a special-use mailbox (e.g.
trash,archive,sent,junk; inbox isn't included)
- if the rule already exist (no point in adding it again).
- if the user said "no, not for this list-id/from-address" in the past.
- if the user said "no, not for messages moved to this mailbox" in the past.
we'll add the rule if the message was moved out of the inbox.
if the message was moved to the inbox, we check if there is a matching rule
that we can remove.
we now remember the "no" answers (for list-id, msg-from-addr and mailbox) in
the account database.
to implement the msgfrom rules, this adds support to rulesets for matching on
message "from" address. before, we could match on smtp from address (and other
fields). rulesets now also have a field for comments. webmail adds a note that
it created the rule, with the date.
manual editing of the rulesets is still in the webaccount page. this webmail
functionality is just a convenient way to add/remove common rules.
for dmarc reporting address, tls reporting address, mtasts policy, dkim keys/selectors.
should make it easier for webadmin-using admins to discover these settings.
the webadmin interface is now on par with functionality you would set through
the configuration file, let's keep it that way.
this simplifies some of the code that makes modifications to the config file. a
few protected functions can make changes to the dynamic config, which webadmin
can use. instead of having separate functions in mox-/admin.go for each type of
change.
this also exports the parsed full dynamic config to webadmin, so we need fewer
functions for specific config fields too.
for applications to compose/send messages, receive delivery feedback, and
maintain suppression lists.
this is an alternative to applications using a library to compose messages,
submitting those messages using smtp, and monitoring a mailbox with imap for
DSNs, which can be processed into the equivalent of suppression lists. but you
need to know about all these standards/protocols and find libraries. by using
the webapi & webhooks, you just need a http & json library.
unfortunately, there is no standard for these kinds of api, so mox has made up
yet another one...
matching incoming DSNs about deliveries to original outgoing messages requires
keeping history of "retired" messages (delivered from the queue, either
successfully or failed). this can be enabled per account. history is also
useful for debugging deliveries. we now also keep history of each delivery
attempt, accessible while still in the queue, and kept when a message is
retired. the queue webadmin pages now also have pagination, to show potentially
large history.
a queue of webhook calls is now managed too. failures are retried similar to
message deliveries. webhooks can also be saved to the retired list after
completing. also configurable per account.
messages can be sent with a "unique smtp mail from" address. this can only be
used if the domain is configured with a localpart catchall separator such as
"+". when enabled, a queued message gets assigned a random "fromid", which is
added after the separator when sending. when DSNs are returned, they can be
related to previously sent messages based on this fromid. in the future, we can
implement matching on the "envid" used in the smtp dsn extension, or on the
"message-id" of the message. using a fromid can be triggered by authenticating
with a login email address that is configured as enabling fromid.
suppression lists are automatically managed per account. if a delivery attempt
results in certain smtp errors, the destination address is added to the
suppression list. future messages queued for that recipient will immediately
fail without a delivery attempt. suppression lists protect your mail server
reputation.
submitted messages can carry "extra" data through the queue and webhooks for
outgoing deliveries. through webapi as a json object, through smtp submission
as message headers of the form "x-mox-extra-<key>: value".
to make it easy to test webapi/webhooks locally, the "localserve" mode actually
puts messages in the queue. when it's time to deliver, it still won't do a full
delivery attempt, but just delivers to the sender account. unless the recipient
address has a special form, simulating a failure to deliver.
admins now have more control over the queue. "hold rules" can be added to mark
newly queued messages as "on hold", pausing delivery. rules can be about
certain sender or recipient domains/addresses, or apply to all messages pausing
the entire queue. also useful for (local) testing.
new config options have been introduced. they are editable through the admin
and/or account web interfaces.
the webapi http endpoints are enabled for newly generated configs with the
quickstart, and in localserve. existing configurations must explicitly enable
the webapi in mox.conf.
gopherwatch.org was created to dogfood this code. it initially used just the
compose/smtpclient/imapclient mox packages to send messages and process
delivery feedback. it will get a config option to use the mox webapi/webhooks
instead. the gopherwatch code to use webapi/webhook is smaller and simpler, and
developing that shaped development of the mox webapi/webhooks.
for issue #31 by cuu508
The `TransportDirect` transport allows to tweak outgoing SMTP
connections to remote servers. Currently, it only allows to select
network IP family (ipv4, ipv6 or both).
For example, to disable ipv6 for all outgoing SMTP connections:
- add these lines in mox.conf to create a new transport named
"disableipv6":
```
Transports:
disableipv6:
Direct:
DisableIpv6: true
```
- then add these lines in domains.conf to use this transport:
```
Routes:
-
Transport: disableipv6
```
fix#149
both when parsing our configs, and for incoming on smtp or in messages.
so we properly compare things like é and e+accent as equal, and accept the
different encodings of that same address.
the current Intn calls in queue could be called concurrently, found by the race
detector with upcoming new tests. best to just prevent any possible concurrent
access.
so you can still know when someone has put you on their blocklist (which may
affect delivery), without using them.
also query dnsbls for our ips more often when we do more outgoing connections
for delivery: once every 100 messages, but at least 5 mins and at most 3 hours
since the previous check.
you can configure a domain only to accept dmarc/tls reports. those domains
won't have addresses for that domain configured (the reporting destination
address is for another domain). we already handled such domains specially in a
few places. but we were considering ourselves authoritative for such domains if
an smtp client would send a message to the domain during submit. and we would
reject all recipient addresses. but we should be trying to deliver those
messages to the actual mx hosts for the domain, which we will now do.
all ui frontend code is now in typescript. we no longer need jshint, and we
build the frontend code during "make build".
this also changes tlsrpt types for a Report, not encoding field names with
dashes, but to keep them valid identifiers in javascript. this makes it more
conveniently to work with in the frontend, and works around a sherpats
limitation.
the autoconfig/autodiscover endpoints, and the printed client settings (in
quickstart, in the admin interface) now all point to the cname record (called
"client settings domain"). it is configurable per domain, and set to
"mail.<domain>" by default. for existing mox installs, the domain can be added
by editing the config file.
this makes it easier for a domain to migrate to another server in the future.
client settings don't have to be updated, the cname can just be changed.
before, the hostname of the mail server was configured in email clients.
migrating away would require changing settings in all clients.
if a client settings domain is configured, a TLS certificate for the name will
be requested through ACME, or must be configured manually.
to get the security benefits (detecting mitm attempts), explicitly configure
clients to use a scram plus variant, e.g. scram-sha-256-plus. unfortunately,
not many clients support it yet.
imapserver scram plus support seems to work with the latest imtest (imap test
client) from cyrus-sasl. no success yet with mutt (with gsasl) though.
should prevent potential mitm attacks. especially when done close to the
machine itself (where a http/tls challenge is intercepted to get a valid
certificate), as seen on the internet last month.
so a single user cannot fill up the disk.
by default, there is (still) no limit. a default can be set in the config file
for all accounts, and a per-account max size can be set that would override any
global setting.
this does not take into account disk usage of the index database. and also not
of any file system overhead.
- prometheus is now behind an interface, they aren't dependencies for the
reusable components anymore.
- some dependencies have been inverted: instead of packages importing a main
package to get configuration, the main package now sets configuration in
these packages. that means fewer internals are pulled in.
- some functions now have new parameters for values that were retrieved from
package "mox-".
we don't want external software to include internal details like mlog.
slog.Logger is/will be the standard.
we still have mlog for its helper functions, and its handler that logs in
concise logfmt used by mox.
packages that are not meant for reuse still pass around mlog.Log for
convenience.
we use golang.org/x/exp/slog because we also support the previous Go toolchain
version. with the next Go release, we'll switch to the builtin slog.
