Stalwart

Stalwart is an open-source, all-in-one mail server solution that supports JMAP, IMAP4, and SMTP protocols. It's designed to be secure, fast, robust, and scalable, with features like built-in DMARC, DKIM, SPF, and ARC support for message authentication. It also provides strong transport security through DANE, MTA-STS, and SMTP TLS reporting. Stalwart is written in Rust, ensuring high performance and memory safety.

Setup

The following example enables the Stalwart mail server for the domain example.org, listening on mail delivery SMTP/Submission (25, 465), IMAPS (993) and JMAP ports (8080/443) for mail clients to connect to. Mailboxes for the accounts postmaster@example.org and user1@example.org get created if they don't exist yet.

❄︎ /etc/nixos/configuration.nix

environment.etc = {
  "stalwart/mail-pw1".text = "foobar";
  "stalwart/mail-pw2".text = "foobar";
  "stalwart/admin-pw".text = "foobar";
  "stalwart/acme-secret".text = "secret123";
};

services.stalwart-mail = {
  enable = true;
  package = pkgs.stalwart-mail;
  openFirewall = true;
  settings = {
    server = {
      hostname = "mx1.example.org";
      tls = {
        enable = true;
        implicit = true;
      };
      listener = {
        smtp = {
          protocol = "smtp";
          bind = "[::]:25";
        };
        submissions = {
          bind = "[::]:465";
          protocol = "smtp";
        };
        imaps = {
          bind = "[::]:993";
          protocol = "imap";
        };
        jmap = {
          bind = "[::]:8080";
          url = "https://mail.example.org";
          protocol = "jmap";
        };
        management = {
          bind = [ "127.0.0.1:8080" ];
          protocol = "http";
        };
      };
    };
    lookup.default = {
      hostname = "mx1.example.org";
      domain = "example.org";
    };
    acme."letsencrypt" = {
      directory = "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory";
      challenge = "dns-01";
      contact = "user1@example.org";
      domains = [ "example.org" "mx1.example.org" ];
      provider = "cloudflare";
      secret = "%{file:/etc/stalwart/acme-secret}%";
    };
    session.auth = {
      mechanisms = "[plain]";
      directory = "'in-memory'";
    };
    storage.directory = "in-memory";
    session.rcpt.directory = "'in-memory'";
    queue.outbound.next-hop = "'local'";
    directory."imap".lookup.domains = [ "example.org" ];
    directory."in-memory" = {
      type = "memory";
      principals = [
        {
          class = "individual";
          name = "User 1";
          secret = "%{file:/etc/stalwart/mail-pw1}%";
          email = [ "user1@example.org" ];
        }
        {
          class = "individual";
          name = "postmaster";
          secret = "%{file:/etc/stalwart/mail-pw1}%";
          email = [ "postmaster@example.org" ];
        }
      ];
    };
    authentication.fallback-admin = {
      user = "admin";
      secret = "%{file:/etc/stalwart/admin-pw}%";
    };
  };
};

services.caddy = {
  enable = true;
  virtualHosts = {
    "webadmin.example.org" = {
      extraConfig = ''
        reverse_proxy http://127.0.0.1:8080
      '';
      serverAliases = [
        "mta-sts.example.org"
        "autoconfig.example.org"
        "autodiscover.example.org"
        "mail.example.org"
      ];
    };
  };
};

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TLS key generation is done using DNS-01 challenge through Cloudflare domain provider, see dns-update library for further providers or configure manual certificates.

Configuration

DNS records

Before adding required records to the example domain example.org, we need to register the domain on the Stalwart server.

stalwart-cli --url https://webadmin.example.org domain create example.org

Authenticate using the fallback-admin password.

Review the list of which DNS records are required including their values for the mail server to work at https://webadmin.example.org/manage/directory/domains/tuxtux.com.co/view. Especially following records are essential:

• Record type: A, Name: example.org
• Record type: AAAA, Name: example.org
• Record type: CNAME, Name: autoconfig Value: example.org
• Record type: CNAME, Name: autodiscover, Value: example.org
• Record type: CNAME, Name: mail, Value: example.org
• Record type: CNAME, Name: mta-sts, Value: example.org
• Record type: CNAME, Name: mail, Value: example.org
• Record type: CNAME, Name: webadmin, Value: example.org
• Record type: MX, Name: example.org, Value: mx1.example.org
• Record type: SRV, Name: _imaps._tcp
• Record type: SRV, Name: _submissions._tcp
• Record type: TLSA, Name: _25._tcp.example.org., Value: Only the one starting with "3 1 1" required
• Record type: TLSA, Name: _25._tcp.mx1.example.org., Value: Only the one starting with "3 1 1" required
• Record type: TXT, Name: 202409e._domainkey
• Record type: TXT, Name: 202409r._domainkey
• Record type: TXT, Name: _dmarc
• Record type: TXT, Name: mx1
• Record type: TXT, Name: _smtp._tls
• Record type: TXT, Name: example.org

DNSSEC

Ensure that DNSSEC is enabled for your primary and mail server domain. It can be enabled by your domain provider.

For example, check if DNSSEC is working correctly for your new TLSA record

# nix shell nixpkgs#dnsutils --command delv _25._tcp.mx1.example.org TLSA @1.1.1.1
; fully validated
_25._tcp.mx1.example.org. 10800 IN TLSA 3 1 1 7f59d873a70e224b184c95a4eb54caa9621e47d48b4a25d312d83d96 e3498238
_25._tcp.mx1.example.org. 10800 IN RRSIG	TLSA 13 5 10800 20230601000000 20230511000000 39688 example.org. He9VYZ35xTC3fNo8GJa6swPrZodSnjjIWPG6Th2YbsOEKTV1E8eGtJ2A +eyBd9jgG+B3cA/jw8EJHmpvy/buCw==

Tips and tricks

Test mail server

You can use several online tools to test your mail server configuration:

• en.internet.nl/test-mail: Test your mail server configuration for validity and security.
• mail-tester.com: Send a mail to this service and get a rating about the "spaminess" of your mail server.
• Send a mail to the echo server echo@univie.ac.at. You should receive a response containing your message in several seconds.

Unsecure setup for testing environments

The following minimal configuration example is unsecure and for testing purpose only. It will run the Stalwart mail server on localhost, listening on port 143 (IMAP) and 587 (Submission). Users alice and bob are configured with the password foobar.

❄︎ /etc/nixos/configuration.nix

services.stalwart-mail = {
  enable = true;
  settings = {
    server = {
      hostname = "localhost";
      tls.enable = false;
      listener = {
        "smtp-submission" = {
          bind = [ "[::]:587" ];
          protocol = "smtp";
        };
        "imap" = {
          bind = [ "[::]:143" ];
          protocol = "imap";
        };
      };
    };
    imap.auth.allow-plain-text = true;
    session.auth = {
      mechanisms = "[plain, auth]";
      directory = "'in-memory'";
    };
    storage.directory = "in-memory";
    session.rcpt.directory = "'in-memory'";
    queue.outbound.next-hop = "'local'";
    directory."in-memory" = {
      type = "memory";
      principals = [
        {
          class = "individual";
          name = "alice";
          secret = "foobar";
          email = [ "alice@localhost" ];
        }
        {
          class = "individual";
          name = "bob";
          secret = "foobar";
          email = [ "bob@$localhost" ];
        }
      ];
    };
  };
};

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See also

• Maddy, a composable, modern mail server written in Go.
• Simple NixOS Mailserver