By @JoshData and 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 for the project's website and setup guide!
I am trying to:
- Make deploying a good mail server easy.
- Promote decentralization, innovation, and privacy on the web.
- Have automated, auditable, and idempotent configuration.
- Not be a mail server that the NSA cannot hack.
- Not be customizable by power users.
The long-term goal is to have this be a one-click email appliance with no user-configurable setup options.
For more background, see The Rationale.
This setup is what has been powering my own personal email since September 2013.
Mail-in-a-Box turns a fresh Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64-bit machine into a working mail server, including SMTP (postfix), IMAP (dovecot), Exchange ActiveSync (z-push), webmail (Roundcube), spam filtering (spamassassin), greylisting (postgrey), CardDAV/CalDAV (ownCloud), DNS, SPF, DKIM (OpenDKIM), DMARC, DNSSEC, DANE TLSA, SSHFP, and basic system services like a firewall, intrusion protection, and setting the system clock.
This project was inspired in part by the "NSA-proof your email in 2 hours" blog post by Drew Crawford, Sovereign by Alex Payne, and conversations with @shevski, @konklone, and @GregElin.
Mail-in-a-Box is similar to iRedMail and Modoboa.
- 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, source.
- Mail-in-a-Box was a semifinalist in the 2014 Knight News Challenge, but it was not selected as a winner.
- Mail-in-a-Box hit the front page of Hacker News in April and September 2014.