Public Key Pinning is a security feature that tells a web browser to associate a public cryptographic key with a server or servers. When a web browser visits a website for the first time, it will read the HPKP header and store the hashes for the certificates that are provided. Each time the browser then revisits that website, the hash from the provided public key is compared against the stored keys, if the hashes do not match, the web browser should display a warning.

The HPKP header adds protection against man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks but, if incorrectly configured can make your website display a TLS error for a long period of time.

Here’s a look at what this website publishes as it’s HKPK header.

Public-Key-Pins: pin-sha256="cYf9T3Il8DaCnaMaM0LatIAru1vqmcu2JSwS7uvyEB0=";
                 pin-sha256="u2q8QZ8Hjp3o/efZjsch9NKjnZmrISJQjwoi/rmsKLU=";
                 max-age=15768000; includeSubDomains

To explain it, the first pin-sha265 key is the hash of the public key that …

This is really a follow up article to one I wrote earlier this year but is really applicable to any similar set-up, with some modifications. The only configuration similarity this requires is that mail for all users is stored on the filesystem in the same place, rather than to separate locations i.e. each user having ~/.Maildir.

EncFS

sudo apt-get install encfs

Once installed, you’ll need to make a directory for encrypted and decrypted mail to live.

sudo mkdir /var/mail/encrypted /var/mail/decrypted

You’ll need to set up permissions so your mail user can access the fuse device and the new directories.

For me, this user and group are called vmail but yours may be different.

sudo chgrp mail /var/mail/decrypted
sudo g+rw /var/mail/decrypted
sudo usermod -a -g fuse vmail
sudo chgrp fuse /dev/fuse
sudo chmod g+rw /dev/fuse

Next …

I think most of us have been in a position where we really shouldn’t continue communicating with someone or contact that person when drunk… You know what I mean, ex relationships etc (it happens.)

With Postfix you can block yourself from emailing that person again, which is quite useful.

In /etc/postfix/main.cf add make the start of your smtpd_recipient_restrictions look like below.

smtpd_recipient_restrictions =
    check_recipient_access hash:/etc/postfix/recipient_access,

Create a new file /etc/postfix/recipient_access and add the email address you wish to block, the word REJECT in capitals and optionally; a reason. Example below.

test@example.com REJECT Don't be silly... You're probably drunk.

For every address you wish to block yourself from emailing, simply add them on a new line.

You can see the email is blocked from being sent in /var/log/mail.log.

NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from 123.123.123.123: 554 5 …

This mail platform does use a fair amount of memory, the memory usage is ClamAV and Solr, the latter being used for IMAP SEARCH. I personally use 2 GB.

I’ll warn you all now, this is a long article.

SSL

sudo openssl genrsa -out /etc/ssl/private/mail.key 4096
sudo openssl req -new -key /etc/ssl/private/mail.key -out /tmp/mail.csr
sudo openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in /tmp/mail.csr -signkey /etc/ssl/private/mail.key -out /etc/ssl/certs/mail.crt

MySQL

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

You’ll be prompted several times for a password for MySQL during the installation, just come up with something nice and secure.

The first thing to set-up will be the MySQL database and schema.

mysql -u root -p

Next up, create the database.

CREATE DATABASE mailserver CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

And grant some privileges, you’ll need …

Mirror

With the DDoS attacks on the torproject.org website over the mid to end of December, I decided it would be prudent to join the relatively small list of mirrors.

Access

+——- —-+—————————+ | Website | Dist / Downloads | +=========+==================+ | HTTP | HTTP DIST | +————-+—————————+ | HTTPS | HTTPS DIST | +————-+—————————+ | FTP | FTP DIST | +————-+—————————+ | RSYNC | RSYNC DIST | +————-+—————————+

Note: This mirror is now dead and links have been removed.