1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686 687 688 689 690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711 712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734 735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780 781 782 783 784 785 786 787 788 789 790 791 792 793 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815 816 817 818 819 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 853 854 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878 879 880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 891 892 893 894 895 896 897 898 899 900 901 902 903 904 905 906 907 908 909 910 911 912 913 914 915 916 917 918 919 920 921 922 923 924 925 926 927 928 929 930 931 932 933 934 935 936 937 938 939 940 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 948 949 950 951 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 969 970 971 972 973 974 975 976 977 978 979 980 981 982 983 984 985 986 987 988 989 990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 999 1000 1001 1002 1003 1004 1005 1006 1007 1008 1009 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1020 1021 1022 1023 1024 1025 1026 1027 1028 1029 1030 1031 1032 1033 1034 1035 1036 1037 1038 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 1045 1046 1047 1048 1049 1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 1055 1056 1057 1058 1059 1060 1061 1062 1063 1064 1065 1066 1067 1068 1069 1070 1071 1072 1073 1074 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1086 1087 1088 1089 1090 1091 1092 1093 1094 1095 1096 1097 1098 1099 1100 1101 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1112 1113 1114 1115 1116 1117 1118 1119 1120 1121 1122 1123 1124 1125 1126 1127 1128 1129 1130 1131 1132 1133 1134 1135 1136 1137 1138 1139 1140 1141 1142 1143 1144 1145 1146 1147 1148 1149 1150 1151 1152 1153 1154 1155 1156 1157 1158 1159 1160 1161 1162 1163 1164 1165 1166 1167 1168 1169 1170 1171 1172 1173 1174 1175 1176 1177 1178 1179 1180 1181 1182 1183 1184 1185 1186 1187 1188 1189 1190 1191 1192 1193 1194 1195 1196 1197 1198 1199 1200 1201 1202 1203 1204 1205 1206 1207 1208 1209 1210 1211 1212 1213 1214 1215 1216 1217 1218 1219 1220 1221 1222 1223 1224 1225 1226 1227 1228 1229 1230 1231 1232 1233 1234 1235 1236 1237 1238 1239 1240 1241 1242 1243 1244 1245 1246 1247 1248 1249 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1259 1260 1261 1262 1263 1264 1265 1266 1267 1268 1269 1270 1271 1272 1273 1274 1275 1276 1277 1278 1279 1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286 1287 1288 1289 1290 1291 1292 1293 1294 1295 1296 1297 1298 1299 1300 1301 1302 1303 1304 1305 1306 1307 1308 1309 1310 1311 1312 1313 1314 1315 1316 1317 1318 1319 1320 1321 1322 1323 1324 1325 1326 1327 1328 1329 1330 1331 1332 1333 1334 1335 1336 1337 1338 1339 1340 1341 1342 1343 1344 1345 1346 1347 1348 1349 1350 1351 1352 1353 1354 1355 1356 1357 1358 1359 1360 1361 1362 1363 1364 1365 1366 1367 1368 1369 1370 1371 1372 1373 1374 1375 1376 1377 1378 1379 1380 1381 1382 1383 1384 1385 1386 1387 1388 1389 1390 1391 1392 1393 1394 1395 1396 1397 1398 1399 1400 1401 1402 1403 1404 1405 1406 1407 1408 1409 1410 1411 1412 1413 1414 1415 1416 1417 1418 1419 1420 1421 1422 1423 1424 1425 1426 1427 1428 1429 1430 1431 1432 1433 1434 1435 1436 1437 1438 1439 1440 1441 1442 1443 1444 1445 1446 1447 1448 1449 1450 1451 1452 1453 1454 1455 1456 1457 1458 1459 1460 1461 1462 1463 1464 1465 1466 1467 1468 1469 1470 1471 1472 1473 1474 1475 1476 1477 1478 1479 1480 1481 1482 1483 1484 1485 1486 1487 1488 1489 1490 1491 1492 1493 1494 1495 1496 1497 1498 1499 1500 1501 1502 1503 1504 1505 1506 1507 1508 1509 1510 1511 1512 1513 1514 1515 1516 1517 1518 1519 1520 1521 1522 1523 1524 1525 1526 1527 1528 1529 1530 1531 1532 1533 1534 1535 1536 1537 1538 1539 1540 1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549 1550 1551 1552 1553 1554 1555 1556 1557 1558 1559 1560 1561 1562 1563 1564 1565 1566 1567 1568 1569 1570 1571 1572 1573 1574 1575 1576 1577 1578 1579 1580 1581 1582 1583 1584 1585 1586 1587 1588 1589 1590 1591 1592 1593 1594 1595 1596 1597 1598 1599 1600 1601 1602 1603 1604 1605 1606 1607 1608 1609 1610 1611 1612 1613 1614 1615 1616 1617 1618 1619 1620 1621 1622 1623 1624 1625 1626 1627 1628 1629 1630 1631 1632 1633 1634 1635 1636 1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 1642 1643 1644 1645 1646 1647 1648 1649 1650 1651 1652 1653 1654 1655 1656 1657 1658 1659 1660 1661 1662 1663 1664 1665 1666 1667 1668 1669 1670 1671 1672 1673 1674 1675 1676 1677 1678 1679 1680 1681 1682 1683 1684 1685 1686 1687 1688 1689 1690 1691 1692 1693 1694 1695 1696 1697 1698 1699 1700 1701 1702 1703 1704 1705 1706 1707 1708 1709 1710 1711 1712 1713 1714 1715 1716 1717 1718 1719 1720 1721 1722 1723 1724 1725 1726 1727 1728 1729 1730 1731 1732 1733 1734 1735 1736 1737 1738 1739 1740 1741 1742 1743 1744 1745 1746 1747 1748 1749 1750 1751 1752 1753 1754 1755 1756 1757 1758 1759 1760 1761 1762 1763 1764 1765 1766 1767 1768 1769 1770 1771 1772 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783
|
PPoossttffiixx TTLLSS SSuuppppoorrtt
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WWAARRNNIINNGG
By turning on TLS support in Postfix, you not only get the ability to encrypt
mail and to authenticate clients or servers. You also turn on thousands and
thousands of lines of OpenSSL library code. Assuming that OpenSSL is written as
carefully as Wietse's own code, every 1000 lines introduce one additional bug
into Postfix.
WWhhaatt PPoossttffiixx TTLLSS ssuuppppoorrtt ddooeess ffoorr yyoouu
Transport Layer Security (TLS, formerly called SSL) provides certificate-based
authentication and encrypted sessions. An encrypted session protects the
information that is transmitted with SMTP mail or with SASL authentication.
Postfix version 2.2 introduces support for TLS as described in RFC 3207. TLS
Support for older Postfix versions was available as an add-on patch. The
section "Compatibility with Postfix < 2.2 TLS support" below discusses the
differences between these implementations.
Topics covered in this document:
* How Postfix TLS support works
* Building Postfix with TLS support
* SMTP Server specific settings
* SMTP Client specific settings
* TLS manager specific settings
* Reporting problems
* Compatibility with Postfix < 2.2 TLS support
* Credits
And last but not least, for the impatient:
* Getting started, quick and dirty
HHooww PPoossttffiixx TTLLSS ssuuppppoorrtt wwoorrkkss
The diagram below shows the main elements of the Postfix TLS architecture and
their relationships. Colored boxes with numbered names represent Postfix daemon
programs. Other colored boxes represent storage elements.
* The smtpd(8) server implements the SMTP over TLS server side.
* The smtp(8) client implements the SMTP over TLS client side.
* The tlsmgr(8) server maintains the pseudo-random number generator (PRNG)
that seeds the TLS engines in the smtpd(8) server and smtp(8) client
processes, and maintains the TLS session key cache files.
<---seed--- ---seed--->
Network-> smtpd(8) tlsmgr(8) smtp(8) ->Network
<-session-> <-session->
/ | \
|
/ \
smtpd PRNG smtp
session state session
key cache file key cache
BBuuiillddiinngg PPoossttffiixx wwiitthh TTLLSS ssuuppppoorrtt
To build Postfix with TLS support, first we need to generate the make(1) files
with the necessary definitions. This is done by invoking the command "make
makefiles" in the Postfix top-level directory and with arguments as shown next.
NNOOTTEE:: DDoo nnoott uussee GGnnuu TTLLSS.. IItt wwiillll ssppoonnttaanneeoouussllyy tteerrmmiinnaattee aa PPoossttffiixx ddaaeemmoonn
pprroocceessss wwiitthh eexxiitt ssttaattuuss ccooddee 22,, iinnsstteeaadd ooff aalllloowwiinngg PPoossttffiixx ttoo 11)) rreeppoorrtt tthhee
eerrrroorr ttoo tthhee mmaaiilllloogg ffiillee,, aanndd ttoo 22)) pprroovviiddee ppllaaiinntteexxtt sseerrvviiccee wwhheerree tthhiiss iiss
aapppprroopprriiaattee..
* If the OpenSSL include files (such as ssl.h) are in directory /usr/include/
openssl, and the OpenSSL libraries (such as libssl.so and libcrypto.so) are
in directory /usr/lib:
% mmaakkee ttiiddyy # if you have left-over files from a previous build
% mmaakkee mmaakkeeffiilleess CCCCAARRGGSS==""--DDUUSSEE__TTLLSS"" AAUUXXLLIIBBSS==""--llssssll --llccrryyppttoo""
* If the OpenSSL include files (such as ssl.h) are in directory /usr/local/
include/openssl, and the OpenSSL libraries (such as libssl.so and
libcrypto.so) are in directory /usr/local/lib:
% mmaakkee ttiiddyy # if you have left-over files from a previous build
% mmaakkee mmaakkeeffiilleess CCCCAARRGGSS==""--DDUUSSEE__TTLLSS --II//uussrr//llooccaall//iinncclluuddee"" \\
AAUUXXLLIIBBSS==""--LL//uussrr//llooccaall//lliibb --llssssll --llccrryyppttoo""
On Solaris, specify the -R option as shown below:
% mmaakkee ttiiddyy # if you have left-over files from a previous build
% mmaakkee mmaakkeeffiilleess CCCCAARRGGSS==""--DDUUSSEE__TTLLSS --II//uussrr//llooccaall//iinncclluuddee"" \\
AAUUXXLLIIBBSS==""--RR//uussrr//llooccaall//lliibb --LL//uussrr//llooccaall//lliibb --llssssll --llccrryyppttoo""
If you need to apply other customizations (such as Berkeley DB databases,
MySQL, PostgreSQL, LDAP or SASL), see the respective Postfix README documents,
and combine their "make makefiles" instructions with the instructions above:
% mmaakkee ttiiddyy # if you have left-over files from a previous build
% mmaakkee mmaakkeeffiilleess CCCCAARRGGSS==""--DDUUSSEE__TTLLSS \\
((ootthheerr --DD oorr --II ooppttiioonnss))"" \\
AAUUXXLLIIBBSS==""--llssssll --llccrryyppttoo \\
((ootthheerr --ll ooppttiioonnss ffoorr lliibbrraarriieess iinn //uussrr//lliibb)) \\
((--LL//ppaatthh//nnaammee ++ --ll ooppttiioonnss ffoorr ootthheerr lliibbrraarriieess))""
To complete the build process, see the Postfix INSTALL instructions. Postfix
has TLS support turned off by default, so you can start using Postfix as soon
as it is installed.
SSMMTTPP SSeerrvveerr ssppeecciiffiicc sseettttiinnggss
Topics covered in this section:
* Server-side certificate and private key configuration
* Server-side TLS activity logging
* Enabling TLS in the Postfix SMTP server
* Client certificate verification
* Supporting AUTH over TLS only
* Server-side TLS session cache
* Server access control
* Server-side cipher controls
* Miscellaneous server controls
SSeerrvveerr--ssiiddee cceerrttiiffiiccaattee aanndd pprriivvaattee kkeeyy ccoonnffiigguurraattiioonn
In order to use TLS, the Postfix SMTP server generally needs a certificate and
a private key. Both must be in "PEM" format. The private key must not be
encrypted, meaning: the key must be accessible without password. Both
certificate and private key may be in the same file, in which case the
certificate file should be owned by "root" and not be readable by any other
user. If the key is stored separately, this applies to the key file only, and
the certificate file may be "world-readable".
Public Internet MX hosts without certificates signed by a "reputable" CA must
generate, and be prepared to present to most clients, a self-signed or private-
CA signed certificate. The client will not be able to authenticate the server,
but unless it is running Postfix 2.3 or similar software, it will still insist
on a server certificate.
For servers that are nnoott public Internet MX hosts, Postfix 2.3 supports
configurations with no certificates. This entails the use of just the anonymous
TLS ciphers, which are not supported by typical SMTP clients. Since such
clients will not, as a rule, fall back to plain text after a TLS handshake
failure, the server will be unable to receive email from most TLS enabled
clients. To avoid accidental configurations with no certificates, Postfix 2.3
enables certificate-less operation only when the administrator explicitly sets
"smtpd_tls_cert_file = none". This ensures that new Postfix configurations will
not accidentally run with no certificates.
Both RSA and DSA certificates are supported. Typically you will only have RSA
certificates issued by a commercial CA. In addition, the tools supplied with
OpenSSL will by default issue RSA certificates. You can have both at the same
time, in which case the cipher used determines which certificate is presented.
For Netscape and OpenSSL clients without special cipher choices, the RSA
certificate is preferred.
In order for remote SMTP clients to check the Postfix SMTP server certificates,
the CA certificate (in case of a certificate chain, all CA certificates) must
be available. You should add any intermediate CA certificates to the server
certificate: the server certificate first, then the intermediate CA(s).
Example: the certificate for "server.dom.ain" was issued by "intermediate CA"
which itself has a certificate issued by "root CA". Create the server.pem file
with:
% ccaatt sseerrvveerr__cceerrtt..ppeemm iinntteerrmmeeddiiaattee__CCAA..ppeemm >> sseerrvveerr..ppeemm
A Postfix SMTP server certificate supplied here must be usable as SSL server
certificate and hence pass the "openssl verify -purpose sslserver ..." test.
A client that trusts the root CA has a local copy of the root CA certificate,
so it is not necessary to include the root CA certificate here. Leaving it out
of the "server.pem" file reduces the overhead of the TLS exchange.
If you want the Postfix SMTP server to accept remote SMTP client certificates
issued by these CAs, append the root certificate to $smtpd_tls_CAfile or
install it in the $smtpd_tls_CApath directory. When you configure trust in a
root CA, it is not necessary to explicitly trust intermediary CAs signed by the
root CA, unless $smtpd_tls_ccert_verifydepth is less than the number of CAs in
the certificate chain for the clients of interest. With a verify depth of 1 you
can only verify certificates directly signed by a trusted CA, and all trusted
intermediary CAs need to be configured explicitly. With a verify depth of 2 you
can verify clients signed by a root CA or a direct intermediary CA (so long as
the client is correctly configured to supply its intermediate CA certificate).
RSA key and certificate examples:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/server.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = $smtpd_tls_cert_file
Their DSA counterparts:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_dcert_file = /etc/postfix/server-dsa.pem
smtpd_tls_dkey_file = $smtpd_tls_dcert_file
Postfix 2.3 and later, TLS without certificates for servers serving exclusively
anonymous-cipher capable clients:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_cert_file = none
To verify a remote SMTP client certificate, the Postfix SMTP server needs to
trust the certificates of the issuing certification authorities. These
certificates in "PEM" format can be stored in a single $smtpd_tls_CAfile or in
multiple files, one CA per file in the $smtpd_tls_CApath directory. If you use
a directory, don't forget to create the necessary "hash" links with:
# $$OOPPEENNSSSSLL__HHOOMMEE//bbiinn//cc__rreehhaasshh //ppaatthh//ttoo//ddiirreeccttoorryy
The $smtpd_tls_CAfile contains the CA certificates of one or more trusted CAs.
The file is opened (with root privileges) before Postfix enters the optional
chroot jail and so need not be accessible from inside the chroot jail.
Additional trusted CAs can be specified via the $smtpd_tls_CApath directory, in
which case the certificates are read (with $mail_owner privileges) from the
files in the directory when the information is needed. Thus, the
$smtpd_tls_CApath directory needs to be accessible inside the optional chroot
jail.
When you configure Postfix to request client certificates, any CA certificates
in $smtpd_tls_CAfile are sent to the client, in order to allow it to choose an
identity signed by a CA you trust. If no $smtpd_tls_CAfile is specified, no
preferred CA list is sent, and the client is free to choose an identity signed
by any CA. Many clients use a fixed identity regardless of the preferred CA
list and you may be able to reduce TLS negotiation overhead by installing
client CA certificates mostly or only in $smtpd_tls_CApath. In the latter case
you need not specify a $smtpd_tls_CAfile.
Note, that unless client certificates are used to allow greater access to TLS
authenticated clients, it is best to not ask for client certificates at all, as
in addition to increased overhead some clients (notably in some cases qmail)
are unable to complete the TLS handshake when client certificates are
requested.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/CAcert.pem
smtpd_tls_CApath = /etc/postfix/certs
SSeerrvveerr--ssiiddee TTLLSS aaccttiivviittyy llooggggiinngg
To get additional information about Postfix SMTP server TLS activity you can
increase the log level from 0..4. Each logging level also includes the
information that is logged at a lower logging level.
0 Disable logging of TLS activity.
1 Log TLS handshake and certificate information.
2 Log levels during TLS negotiation.
3 Log hexadecimal and ASCII dump of TLS negotiation process
4 Log hexadecimal and ASCII dump of complete transmission after STARTTLS
Use log level 3 only in case of problems. Use of log level 4 is strongly
discouraged.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_loglevel = 0
To include information about the protocol and cipher used as well as the client
and issuer CommonName into the "Received:" message header, set the
smtpd_tls_received_header variable to true. The default is no, as the
information is not necessarily authentic. Only information recorded at the
final destination is reliable, since the headers may be changed by intermediate
servers.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_received_header = yes
EEnnaabblliinngg TTLLSS iinn tthhee PPoossttffiixx SSMMTTPP sseerrvveerr
By default, TLS is disabled in the Postfix SMTP server, so no difference to
plain Postfix is visible. Explicitly switch it on with
"smtpd_tls_security_level = may" (Postfix 2.3 and later) or "smtpd_use_tls =
yes" (obsolete but still supported).
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
# Postfix 2.3 and later
smtpd_tls_security_level = may
# Obsolete, but still supported
smtpd_use_tls = yes
With this, Postfix SMTP server announces STARTTLS support to SMTP clients, but
does not require that clients use TLS encryption.
Note: when an unprivileged user invokes "sendmail -bs", STARTTLS is never
offered due to insufficient privileges to access the server private key. This
is intended behavior.
You can ENFORCE the use of TLS, so that the Postfix SMTP server announces
STARTTLS and accepts no mail without TLS encryption, by setting
"smtpd_tls_security_level = encrypt" (Postfix 2.3 and later) or
"smtpd_enforce_tls = yes" (obsolete but still supported). According to RFC 2487
this MUST NOT be applied in case of a publicly-referenced Postfix SMTP server.
This option is off by default and should only seldom be used.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
# Postfix 2.3 and later
smtpd_tls_security_level = encrypt
# Obsolete, but still supported
smtpd_enforce_tls = yes
TLS is sometimes used in the non-standard "wrapper" mode where a server always
uses TLS, instead of announcing STARTTLS support and waiting for clients to
request TLS service. Some clients, namely Outlook [Express] prefer the
"wrapper" mode. This is true for OE (Win32 < 5.0 and Win32 >=5.0 when run on a
port<>25 and OE (5.01 Mac on all ports).
It is strictly discouraged to use this mode from main.cf. If you want to
support this service, enable a special port in master.cf and specify "-
o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=yes" (note: no space around the "=") as an smtpd(8)
command line option. Port 465 (smtps) was once chosen for this feature.
Example:
/etc/postfix/master.cf:
smtps inet n - n - - smtpd
-o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=yes -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
CClliieenntt cceerrttiiffiiccaattee vveerriiffiiccaattiioonn
To receive a remote SMTP client certificate, the Postfix SMTP server must
explicitly ask for one (any contents of $smtpd_tls_CAfile are also sent to the
client as a hint for choosing a certificate from a suitable CA). Unfortunately,
Netscape clients will either complain if no matching client certificate is
available or will offer the user client a list of certificates to choose from.
Additionally some MTAs (notably some versions of qmail) are unable to complete
TLS negotiation when client certificates are requested, and abort the SMTP
session. So this option is "off" by default. You will however need the
certificate if you want to use certificate based relaying with, for example,
the permit_tls_clientcerts feature. A server that wants client certificates
must first present its own certificate. While Postfix 2.3 by default offers
anonymous ciphers to clients, these are automatically suppressed when the
server is configured to ask for client certificates.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_ask_ccert = yes
# Postfix 2.3 and later
smtpd_tls_security_level = may
# Obsolete, but still supported
smtpd_use_tls = yes
When TLS is enforced you may also decide to REQUIRE a remote SMTP client
certificate for all TLS connections, by setting "smtpd_tls_req_ccert = yes".
This feature implies "smtpd_tls_ask_ccert = yes". When TLS is not enforced,
"smtpd_tls_req_ccert = yes" is ignored and a warning is logged.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_req_ccert = yes
# Postfix 2.3 and later
smtpd_tls_security_level = encrypt
# Obsolete, but still supported
smtpd_enforce_tls = yes
A client certificate verification depth of 1 is sufficient if the certificate
is directly issued by a CA listed in the CA file. The default value (5) should
also suffice for longer chains (root CA issues special CA which then issues the
actual certificate...)
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_ccert_verifydepth = 5
SSuuppppoorrttiinngg AAUUTTHH oovveerr TTLLSS oonnllyy
Sending AUTH data over an unencrypted channel poses a security risk. When TLS
layer encryption is required ("smtpd_tls_security_level = encrypt" or the
obsolete "smtpd_enforce_tls = yes"), the Postfix SMTP server will announce and
accept AUTH only after the TLS layer has been activated with STARTTLS. When TLS
layer encryption is optional ("smtpd_tls_security_level = may" or the obsolete
"smtpd_enforce_tls = no"), it may however still be useful to only offer AUTH
when TLS is active. To maintain compatibility with non-TLS clients, the default
is to accept AUTH without encryption. In order to change this behavior, set
"smtpd_tls_auth_only = yes".
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_auth_only = no
SSeerrvveerr--ssiiddee TTLLSS sseessssiioonn ccaacchhee
The Postfix SMTP server and the remote SMTP client negotiate a session, which
takes some computer time and network bandwidth. By default, this session
information is cached only in the smtpd(8) process actually using this session
and is lost when the process terminates. To share the session information
between multiple smtpd(8) processes, a persistent session cache can be used.
You can specify any database type that can store objects of several kbytes and
that supports the sequence operator. DBM databases are not suitable because
they can only store small objects. The cache is maintained by the tlsmgr(8)
process, so there is no problem with concurrent access. Session caching is
highly recommended, because the cost of repeatedly negotiating TLS session keys
is high.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:/etc/postfix/smtpd_scache
Cached Postfix SMTP server session information expires after a certain amount
of time. Postfix/TLS does not use the OpenSSL default of 300s, but a longer
time of 3600sec (=1 hour). RFC 2246 recommends a maximum of 24 hours.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_session_cache_timeout = 3600s
When the Postfix SMTP server does not save TLS sessions to an external cache
database, client-side session caching is unlikely to be useful. To prevent such
wastage, the Postfix SMTP server can be configured to not issue TLS session
ids. By default the Postfix SMTP server always issues TLS session ids. This
works around known interoperability issues with some MUAs, and prevents
possible interoperability issues with other MTAs.
Example:
smtpd_tls_always_issue_session_ids = no
SSeerrvveerr aacccceessss ccoonnttrrooll
Postfix TLS support introduces three additional features for Postfix SMTP
server access control:
permit_tls_clientcerts
Allow the remote SMTP client SMTP request if the client certificate
passes verification, and if its fingerprint is listed in the list of
client certificates (see relay_clientcerts discussion below).
permit_tls_all_clientcerts
Allow the remote client SMTP request if the client certificate passes
verification.
check_ccert_access type:table
If the client certificate passes verification, use its fingerprint as a
key for the specified access(5) table.
The permit_tls_all_clientcerts feature must be used with caution, because it
can result in too many access permissions. Use this feature only if a special
CA issues the client certificates, and only if this CA is listed as trusted CA.
If other CAs are trusted, any owner of a valid client certificate would be
authorized. The permit_tls_all_clientcerts feature can be practical for a
specially created email relay server.
It is however recommended to stay with the permit_tls_clientcerts feature and
list all certificates via $relay_clientcerts, as permit_tls_all_clientcerts
does not permit any control when a certificate must no longer be used (e.g. an
employee leaving).
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_recipient_restrictions =
...
permit_tls_clientcerts
reject_unauth_destination
...
The Postfix list manipulation routines give special treatment to whitespace and
some other characters, making the use of certificate names impractical. Instead
we use the certificate fingerprints as they are difficult to fake but easy to
use for lookup. Postfix lookup tables are in the form of (key, value) pairs.
Since we only need the key, the value can be chosen freely, e.g. the name of
the user or host.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
relay_clientcerts = hash:/etc/postfix/relay_clientcerts
/etc/postfix/relay_clientcerts:
D7:04:2F:A7:0B:8C:A5:21:FA:31:77:E1:41:8A:EE:80 lutzpc.at.home
SSeerrvveerr--ssiiddee cciipphheerr ccoonnttrroollss
The description below is for Postfix 2.3; for Postfix < 2.3 the
smtpd_tls_cipherlist parameter specifies the acceptable ciphers as an explicit
OpenSSL cipherlist. The obsolete setting applies even when TLS encryption is
not enforced. Use of this control on public MX hosts is strongly discouraged.
With mandatory TLS encryption, the Postfix SMTP server will by default only use
SSLv3 or TLSv1. SSLv2 is only used when TLS encryption is optional. This is
controlled by the smtpd_tls_mandatory_protocols configuration parameter.
The Postfix SMTP server supports 5 distinct cipher security levels as specified
by the smtpd_tls_mandatory_ciphers configuration parameter, which determines
the cipher grade with mandatory TLS encryption. The default value is "medium"
which is essentially 128-bit encryption or better. With opportunistic TLS
encryption, the minimum accepted cipher grade is always "export".
By default anonymous ciphers are allowed, and automatically disabled when
client certificates are requested. If clients are expected to always verify the
server certificate you may want to exclude anonymous ciphers by setting
"smtpd_tls_mandatory_exclude_ciphers = aNULL". One can't force a client to
check the server certificate, so excluding anonymous ciphers is generally
unnecessary.
For a server that is not a public Internet MX host, Postfix 2.3 supports
configurations with no server certificates that use oonnllyy the anonymous ciphers.
This is enabled by explicitly setting "smtpd_tls_cert_file = none" and not
specifying an smtpd_tls_dcert_file.
Example: (MSA that requires TLS with high grade ciphers)
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/cert.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/key.pem
smtpd_tls_mandatory_ciphers = high
smtpd_tls_mandatory_exclude_ciphers = aNULL, MD5
# Postfix 2.3 and later
smtpd_tls_security_level = encrypt
# Obsolete, but still supported
smtpd_enforce_tls = yes
If you want to take advantage of ciphers with EDH, DH parameters are needed.
Instead of using the built-in DH parameters for both 1024bit and 512bit, it is
better to generate your own parameters, since otherwise it would "pay" for a
possible attacker to start a brute force attack against parameters that are
used by everybody. For this reason, the default parameters chosen by OpenSSL
are already different from those distributed with other TLS packages.
To generate your own set of DH parameters, use:
% ooppeennssssll ggeennddhh --oouutt //eettcc//ppoossttffiixx//ddhh__11002244..ppeemm --22 --rraanndd //vvaarr//rruunn//eeggdd--ppooooll
11002244
% ooppeennssssll ggeennddhh --oouutt //eettcc//ppoossttffiixx//ddhh__551122..ppeemm --22 --rraanndd //vvaarr//rruunn//eeggdd--ppooooll 551122
Examples:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_tls_dh1024_param_file = /etc/postfix/dh_1024.pem
smtpd_tls_dh512_param_file = /etc/postfix/dh_512.pem
MMiisscceellllaanneeoouuss sseerrvveerr ccoonnttrroollss
The smtpd_starttls_timeout parameter limits the time of Postfix SMTP server
write and read operations during TLS startup and shutdown handshake procedures.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtpd_starttls_timeout = 300s
SSMMTTPP CClliieenntt ssppeecciiffiicc sseettttiinnggss
Topics covered in this section:
* TLS support in the LMTP delivery agent
* Client-side certificate and private key configuration
* Client-side TLS activity logging
* Client-side TLS session cache
* Client TLS limitations
* Client TLS security levels
* Disabling TLS in the SMTP/LMTP client
* Enabling TLS in the SMTP/LMTP client
* Mandating TLS encryption
* Mandating server certificate verification
* Secure server certificate verification
* Per-destination TLS policy
* Obsolete per-site TLS policy support
* Closing a DNS loophole with obsolete per-site TLS policies
* Discovering servers that support TLS
* Server certificate verification depth
* Client-side cipher controls
* Miscellaneous client controls
TTLLSS ssuuppppoorrtt iinn tthhee LLMMTTPP ddeelliivveerryy aaggeenntt
In Postfix 2.3, the smtp(8) and lmtp(8) delivery agents have been merged into a
single dual-purpose program. As a result the lmtp(8) delivery agent is no
longer the poor cousin of the more extensively used smtp(8). Specifically, as
of Postfix 2.3, all the TLS features described below apply equally to SMTP and
LMTP, after replacing the "smtp_" prefix of the each parameter name with
"lmtp_".
The LMTP delivery agent can communicate with LMTP servers listening on UNIX-
domain sockets. When server certificate verification is enabled and the server
is listening on a UNIX-domain socket, the $myhostname parameter is used to set
the TLS verification nexthop and hostname. Note, opportunistic encryption of
LMTP traffic over UNIX-domain sockets is futile. TLS is only useful in this
context when it is mandatory, typically to allow at least one of the server or
the client to authenticate the other. The "null" cipher grade may be
appropriate in this context, when available on both client and server. The
"null" ciphers provide authentication without encryption.
CClliieenntt--ssiiddee cceerrttiiffiiccaattee aanndd pprriivvaattee kkeeyy ccoonnffiigguurraattiioonn
Do not configure client certificates unless you mmuusstt present client TLS
certificates to one or more servers. Client certificates are not usually
needed, and can cause problems in configurations that work well without them.
The recommended setting is to let the defaults stand:
smtp_tls_cert_file =
smtp_tls_dcert_file =
smtp_tls_key_file =
smtp_tls_dkey_file =
The best way to use the default settings is to comment out the above parameters
in main.cf if present.
During TLS startup negotiation the Postfix SMTP client may present a
certificate to the remote SMTP server. The Netscape client is rather clever
here and lets the user select between only those certificates that match CA
certificates offered by the remote SMTP server. As the Postfix SMTP client uses
the "SSL_connect()" function from the OpenSSL package, this is not possible and
we have to choose just one certificate. So for now the default is to use _no_
certificate and key unless one is explicitly specified here.
Both RSA and DSA certificates are supported. You can have both at the same
time, in which case the cipher used determines which certificate is presented.
It is possible for the Postfix SMTP client to use the same key/certificate pair
as the Postfix SMTP server. If a certificate is to be presented, it must be in
"PEM" format. The private key must not be encrypted, meaning: it must be
accessible without password. Both parts (certificate and private key) may be in
the same file.
In order for remote SMTP servers to verify the Postfix SMTP client
certificates, the CA certificate (in case of a certificate chain, all CA
certificates) must be available. You should add these certificates to the
client certificate, the client certificate first, then the issuing CA(s).
Example: the certificate for "client.example.com" was issued by "intermediate
CA" which itself has a certificate of "root CA". Create the client.pem file
with:
% ccaatt cclliieenntt__cceerrtt..ppeemm iinntteerrmmeeddiiaattee__CCAA..ppeemm >> cclliieenntt..ppeemm
A Postfix SMTP client certificate supplied here must be usable as SSL client
certificate and hence pass the "openssl verify -purpose sslclient ..." test.
A server that trusts the root CA has a local copy of the root CA certificate,
so it is not necessary to include the root CA certificate here. Leaving it out
of the "client.pem" file reduces the overhead of the TLS exchange.
If you want the Postfix SMTP client to accept remote SMTP server certificates
issued by these CAs, append the root certificate to $smtp_tls_CAfile or install
it in the $smtp_tls_CApath directory. When you configure trust in a root CA, it
is not necessary to explicitly trust intermediary CAs signed by the root CA,
unless $smtp_tls_scert_verifydepth is less than the number of CAs in the
certificate chain for the servers of interest. With a verify depth of 1 you can
only verify certificates directly signed by a trusted CA, and all trusted
intermediary CAs need to be configured explicitly. With a verify depth of 2 you
can verify servers signed by a root CA or a direct intermediary CA (so long as
the server is correctly configured to supply its intermediate CA certificate).
RSA key and certificate examples:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/client.pem
smtp_tls_key_file = $smtp_tls_cert_file
Their DSA counterparts:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_dcert_file = /etc/postfix/client-dsa.pem
smtp_tls_dkey_file = $smtpd_tls_cert_file
To verify a remote SMTP server certificate, the Postfix SMTP client needs to
trust the certificates of the issuing certification authorities. These
certificates in "pem" format can be stored in a single $smtp_tls_CAfile or in
multiple files, one CA per file in the $smtp_tls_CApath directory. If you use a
directory, don't forget to create the necessary "hash" links with:
# $$OOPPEENNSSSSLL__HHOOMMEE//bbiinn//cc__rreehhaasshh //ppaatthh//ttoo//ddiirreeccttoorryy
The $smtp_tls_CAfile contains the CA certificates of one or more trusted CAs.
The file is opened (with root privileges) before Postfix enters the optional
chroot jail and so need not be accessible from inside the chroot jail.
Additional trusted CAs can be specified via the $smtp_tls_CApath directory, in
which case the certificates are read (with $mail_owner privileges) from the
files in the directory when the information is needed. Thus, the
$smtp_tls_CApath directory needs to be accessible inside the optional chroot
jail.
The choice between $smtp_tls_CAfile and $smtpd_tls_CApath is a space/time
tradeoff. If there are many trusted CAs, the cost of preloading them all into
memory may not pay off in reduced access time when the certificate is needed.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/CAcert.pem
smtp_tls_CApath = /etc/postfix/certs
CClliieenntt--ssiiddee TTLLSS aaccttiivviittyy llooggggiinngg
To get additional information about Postfix SMTP client TLS activity you can
increase the loglevel from 0..4. Each logging level also includes the
information that is logged at a lower logging level.
0 Disable logging of TLS activity.
1 Log TLS handshake and certificate information.
2 Log levels during TLS negotiation.
3 Log hexadecimal and ASCII dump of TLS negotiation process
4 Log hexadecimal and ASCII dump of complete transmission after STARTTLS
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_loglevel = 0
CClliieenntt--ssiiddee TTLLSS sseessssiioonn ccaacchhee
The remote SMTP server and the Postfix SMTP client negotiate a session, which
takes some computer time and network bandwidth. By default, this session
information is cached only in the smtp(8) process actually using this session
and is lost when the process terminates. To share the session information
between multiple smtp(8) processes, a persistent session cache can be used. You
can specify any database type that can store objects of several kbytes and that
supports the sequence operator. DBM databases are not suitable because they can
only store small objects. The cache is maintained by the tlsmgr(8) process, so
there is no problem with concurrent access. Session caching is highly
recommended, because the cost of repeatedly negotiating TLS session keys is
high. Future Postfix SMTP servers may limit the number of sessions that a
client is allowed to negotiate per unit time.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:/etc/postfix/smtp_scache
Cached Postfix SMTP client session information expires after a certain amount
of time. Postfix/TLS does not use the OpenSSL default of 300s, but a longer
time of 3600s (=1 hour). RFC 2246 recommends a maximum of 24 hours.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_session_cache_timeout = 3600s
CClliieenntt TTLLSS lliimmiittaattiioonnss
The security properties of TLS communication channels are application specific.
While the TLS protocol can provide a confidential, tamper-resistant, mutually
authenticated channel between client and server, not all of these security
features are applicable to every communication.
For example, while mutual TLS authentication between browsers and web servers
is possible, it is not practical, or even useful, for web-servers that serve
the public to verify the identity of every potential user. In practice, most
HTTPS transactions are asymmetric: the browser verifies the HTTPS server's
identity, but the user remains anonymous. Much of the security policy is up to
the client. If the client chooses to not verify the server's name, the server
is not aware of this. There are many interesting browser security topics, but
we shall not dwell on them here. Rather, our goal is to understand the security
features of TLS in conjunction with SMTP.
An important SMTP-specific observation is that a public MX host is even more at
the mercy of the SMTP client than is an HTTPS server. Not only can it not
enforce due care in the client's use of TLS, but it cannot even enforce the use
of TLS, because TLS support in SMTP clients is still the exception rather than
the rule. One cannot, in practice, limit access to one's MX hosts to just TLS-
enabled clients. Such a policy would result in a vast reduction in one's
ability to communicate by email with the world at large.
One may be tempted to try enforcing TLS for mail from specific sending
organizations, but this, too, runs into obstacles. One such obstacle is that we
don't know who is (allegedly) sending mail until we see the "MAIL FROM:" SMTP
command, and at that point, if TLS is not already in use, a potentially
sensitive sender address (and with SMTP PIPELINING one or more of the
recipients) has (have) already been leaked in the clear. Another obstacle is
that mail from the sender to the recipient may be forwarded, and the forwarding
organization may not have any security arrangements with the final destination.
Bounces also need to be protected. These can only be identified by the IP
address and HELO name of the connecting client, and it is difficult to keep
track of all the potential IP addresses or HELO names of the outbound email
servers of the sending organization.
Consequently, TLS security for mail delivery to public MX hosts is almost
entirely the client's responsibility. The server is largely a passive enabler
of TLS security, the rest is up to the client. While the server has a greater
opportunity to mandate client security policy when it is a dedicated MSA that
only handles outbound mail from trusted clients, below we focus on the client
security policy.
On the SMTP client, there are further complications. When delivering mail to a
given domain, in contrast to HTTPS, one rarely uses the domain name directly as
the target host of the SMTP session. More typically, one uses MX lookups -
these are usually unauthenticated - to obtain the domain's SMTP server hostname
(s). When, as is current practice, the client verifies the insecurely obtained
MX hostname, it is subject to a DNS man-in-the-middle attack.
If clients instead attempted to verify the recipient domain name, an SMTP
server for multiple domains would need to list all its email domain names in
its certificate, and generate a new certificate each time a new domain were
added. At least some CAs set fairly low limits (20 for one prominent CA) on the
number of names that server certificates can contain. This approach is not
consistent with current practice and does not scale.
It is regrettably the case that TLS secure-channels (fully authenticated and
immune to man-in-the-middle attacks) impose constraints on the sending and
receiving sites that preclude ubiquitous deployment. One needs to manually
configure this type of security for each destination domain, and in many cases
implement non-default TLS policy table entries for additional domains hosted at
a common secured destination. With Postfix 2.3, we make secure-channel
configurations substantially easier to configure, but they will never be the
norm. For the generic domain with which you have made no specific security
arrangements, this security level is not a good fit.
Given that strong authentication is not generally possible, and that verifiable
certificates cost time and money, many servers that implement TLS use self-
signed certificates or private CAs. This further limits the applicability of
verified TLS on the public Internet.
Historical note: while the documentation of these issues and many of the
related features are new with Postfix 2.3, the issue was well understood before
Postfix 1.0, when Lutz Jnicke was designing the first unofficial Postfix TLS
patch. See his original post http://www.imc.org/ietf-apps-tls/mail-archive/
msg00304.html and the first response http://www.imc.org/ietf-apps-tls/mail-
archive/msg00305.html. The problem is not even unique to SMTP or even TLS,
similar issues exist for secure connections via aliases for HTTPS and Kerberos.
SMTP merely uses indirect naming (via MX records) more frequently.
CClliieenntt TTLLSS sseeccuurriittyy lleevveellss
The TLS security levels listed below are described in more detail in the
sections that follow.
nnoonnee
No TLS.
mmaayy
Opportunistic TLS.
eennccrryypptt
Mandatory TLS encryption.
vveerriiffyy
Mandatory server certificate verification.
sseeccuurree
Secure-channel TLS.
DDiissaabblliinngg TTLLSS iinn tthhee SSMMTTPP//LLMMTTPP cclliieenntt
At the "none" TLS security level, TLS encryption is disabled. This is the
default security level. With Postfix 2.3 and later, it can be configured
explicitly by setting "smtp_tls_security_level = none".
With Postfix 2.2 and earlier, or when smtp_tls_security_level is set to its
default (backwards compatible) empty value, the appropriate configuration
settings are "smtp_use_tls = no" and "smtp_enforce_tls = no". With either
approach, TLS is not used even if supported by the server. For LMTP, use the
corresponding "lmtp_" parameters.
Per destination settings may override this default setting, in which case TLS
is used selectively, only with destinations explicitly configured for TLS.
You can disable TLS for a subset of destinations, while leaving it enabled for
the rest. With the Postfix 2.3+ TLS policy table, specify the "none" security
level. With the obsolete per-site table, specify the "NONE" keyword.
OOppppoorrttuunniissttiicc TTLLSS
At the "may" TLS security level, TLS encryption is opportunistic. The SMTP
transaction is encrypted if the STARTTLS ESMTP feature is supported by the
server. Otherwise, messages are sent in the clear. With Postfix 2.3 and later,
opportunistic TLS can be configured by setting "smtp_tls_security_level = may".
Since sending in the clear is acceptable, demanding stronger than default TLS
security merely reduces inter-operability. For this reason, Postfix 2.3 and
later ignore the smtp_tls_mandatory_ciphers and smtp_tls_mandatory_protocols
parameters at the "may" security level: all protocols are allowed, and "export"
grade or better ciphers are used.
With Postfix 2.2 and earlier, or when smtp_tls_security_level is set to its
default (backwards compatible) empty value, the appropriate configuration
settings are "smtp_use_tls = yes" and "smtp_enforce_tls = no". For LMTP use the
corresponding "lmtp_" parameters.
With opportunistic TLS, mail delivery continues even if the server certificate
is untrusted or bears the wrong name. Starting with Postfix 2.3, when the TLS
handshake fails for an opportunistic TLS session, rather than give up on mail
delivery, the transaction is retried with TLS disabled. Trying an unencrypted
connection makes it possible to deliver mail to sites with non-interoperable
server TLS implementations.
Opportunistic encryption is never used for LMTP over UNIX-domain sockets. The
communications channel is already confidential without TLS, so the only
potential benefit of TLS is authentication. Do not configure opportunistic TLS
for LMTP deliveries over UNIX-domain sockets. Only configure TLS for LMTP over
UNIX-domain sockets at the encrypt security level or higher. Attempts to
configure opportunistic encryption of LMTP sessions will be ignored with a
warning written to the mail logs.
You can enable opportunistic TLS just for selected destinations. With the
Postfix 2.3+ TLS policy table, specify the "may" security level. With the
obsolete per-site table, specify the "MAY" keyword.
This is the most common security level for TLS protected SMTP sessions,
stronger security is not generally available and, if needed, is typically only
configured on a per-destination basis. See the section on TLS limitations
above.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_security_level = may
Postfix 2.2 syntax:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtp_enforce_tls = no
MMaannddaattoorryy TTLLSS eennccrryyppttiioonn
At the "encrypt" TLS security level, messages are sent only over TLS encrypted
sessions. The SMTP transaction is aborted unless the STARTTLS ESMTP feature is
supported by the server. If no suitable servers are found, the message will be
deferred. With Postfix 2.3 and later, mandatory TLS encryption can be
configured by setting "smtp_tls_security_level = encrypt". Even though TLS
encryption is always used, mail delivery continues if the server certificate is
untrusted or bears the wrong name.
At this security level and higher, the smtp_tls_mandatory_protocols and
smtp_tls_mandatory_ciphers configuration parameters determine the list of
sufficiently secure SSL protocol versions and the minimum cipher strength. If
the protocol or cipher requirements are not met, the mail transaction is
aborted. The documentation for these parameters includes useful
interoperability and security guidelines.
With Postfix 2.2 and earlier, or when smtp_tls_security_level is set to its
default (backwards compatible) empty value, the appropriate configuration
settings are "smtp_enforce_tls = yes" and "smtp_tls_enforce_peername = no". For
LMTP use the corresponding "lmtp_" parameters.
Despite the potential for eliminating passive eavesdropping attacks, mandatory
TLS encryption is not viable as a default security level for mail delivery to
the public Internet. Most MX hosts do not support TLS at all, and some of those
that do have broken implementations. On a host that delivers mail to the
Internet, you should not configure mandatory TLS encryption as the default
security level.
You can enable mandatory TLS encryption just for specific destinations. With
the Postfix 2.3+ TLS policy table, specify the "encrypt" security level. With
the obsolete per-site table, specify the "MUST_NOPEERMATCH" keyword. While the
obsolete approach still works with Postfix 2.3, it is strongly discouraged:
users of Postfix 2.3+ should use the new TLS policy settings.
Examples:
In the example below, traffic to example.com and its sub-domains via the
corresponding MX hosts always uses TLS. The protocol version will be "SSLv3" or
"TLSv1" (the default setting of smtp_tls_mandatory_protocols excludes "SSLv2").
Only high or medium strength (i.e. 128 bit or better) ciphers will be used by
default for all "encrypt" security level sessions.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_policy_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_policy
/etc/postfix/tls_policy:
example.com encrypt
.example.com encrypt
Postfix 2.2 syntax (no support for sub-domains without resorting to regexp
tables). With Postfix 2.3+, do not use the obsolete per-site table.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_per_site = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_per_site
/etc/postfix/tls_per_site:
example.com MUST_NOPEERMATCH
In the next example, secure message submission is configured via the MSA "
[example.net]:587". TLS sessions are encrypted without authentication, because
this MSA does not possess an acceptable certificate. This MSA is known to be
capable of "TLSv1" and "high" grade ciphers, so these are selected via the
policy table.
NNoottee:: the policy table lookup key is the verbatim next-hop specification from
the recipient domain, transport(5) table or relayhost parameter, with any
enclosing square brackets and optional port. Take care to be consistent: the
suffixes ":smtp" or ":25" or no port suffix result in different policy table
lookup keys, even though they are functionally equivalent nexthop
specifications. Use at most one of these forms for all destinations. Below, the
policy table has multiple keys, just in case the transport table entries are
not specified consistently.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_policy_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_policy
/etc/services:
submission 587/tcp msa # mail message
submission
/etc/postfix/tls_policy:
[example.net]:587 encrypt protocols=TLSv1 ciphers=high
[example.net]:msa encrypt protocols=TLSv1 ciphers=high
[example.net]:submission encrypt protocols=TLSv1 ciphers=high
Postfix 2.2 syntax:
NNoottee:: Avoid policy lookups with the bare hostname (for example, "example.net").
Instead, use the destination (for example, "[example.net]:587"), as the per-
site table lookup key (a recipient domain or MX-enabled transport nexthop with
no port suffix may look like a bare hostname, but is still a suitable
destination). With Postfix 2.3+, do not use the obsolete per-site table; use
the new policy table instead.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_per_site = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_per_site
/etc/postfix/tls_per_site:
[example.net]:587 MUST_NOPEERMATCH
MMaannddaattoorryy sseerrvveerr cceerrttiiffiiccaattee vveerriiffiiccaattiioonn
At the "verify" TLS security level, messages are sent only over TLS encrypted
sessions if the server certificate is valid (not expired or revoked, and signed
by a trusted certificate authority) and if the server certificate name matches
a known pattern. Mandatory server certificate verification can be configured by
setting "smtp_tls_security_level = verify". The smtp_tls_verify_cert_match
parameter can override the default "hostname" certificate name matching
strategy. Fine-tuning the matching strategy is generally only appropriate for
secure-channel destinations.
With Postfix 2.2 and earlier, or when smtp_tls_security_level is set to its
default (backwards compatible) empty value, the appropriate configuration
settings are "smtp_enforce_tls = yes" and "smtp_tls_enforce_peername = yes".
For LMTP use the corresponding "lmtp_" parameters.
If the server certificate chain is trusted (see smtp_tls_CAfile and
smtp_tls_CApath), any DNS names in the SubjectAlternativeName certificate
extension are used to verify the server name. If no DNS names are specified,
the certificate CommonName is checked. If you want mandatory encryption without
server certificate verification, see above.
Despite the potential for eliminating "man-in-the-middle" and other attacks,
mandatory certificate trust chain and subject name verification is not viable
as a default Internet mail delivery policy. Most MX hosts do not support TLS at
all, and a significant portion of TLS enabled MTAs use self-signed
certificates, or certificates that are signed by a private certificate
authority. On a machine that delivers mail to the Internet, you should not
configure mandatory server certificate verification as a default policy.
Mandatory server certificate verification as a default security level may be
appropriate if you know that you will only connect to servers that support RFC
2487 and that present verifiable server certificates. An example would be a
client that sends all email to a central mailhub that offers the necessary
STARTTLS support. In such cases, you can often use a secure-channel
configuration instead.
You can enable mandatory server certificate verification just for specific
destinations. With the Postfix 2.3+ TLS policy table, specify the "verify"
security level. With the obsolete per-site table, specify the "MUST" keyword.
While the obsolete approach still works with Postfix 2.3, it is strongly
discouraged: users of Postfix 2.3+ should use the new TLS policy settings.
Example:
In this example, the client encrypts all traffic to the example.com domain. The
peer hostname is verified, but verification is vulnerable to DNS response
forgery. Mail transmission to example.com recipients uses "high" grade ciphers.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
indexed = ${default_database_type}:${config_directory}/
smtp_tls_CAfile = ${config_directory}/CAfile.pem
smtp_tls_policy_maps = ${indexed}tls_policy
/etc/postfix/tls_policy:
example.com verify ciphers=high
Postfix 2.2 syntax:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
indexed = ${default_database_type}:${config_directory}/
smtp_tls_CAfile = ${config_directory}/CAfile.pem
smtp_tls_per_site = ${indexed}tls_per_site
/etc/postfix/tls_per_site:
example.com MUST
SSeeccuurree sseerrvveerr cceerrttiiffiiccaattee vveerriiffiiccaattiioonn
At the secure TLS security level, messages are sent only over secure-channel
TLS sessions where DNS forgery resistant server certificate verification
succeeds. If no suitable servers are found, the message will be deferred. With
Postfix 2.3 and later, secure-channels can be configured by setting
"smtp_tls_security_level = secure". The smtp_tls_secure_cert_match parameter
can override the default "nexthop, dot-nexthop" certificate match strategy.
With Postfix 2.2 and earlier, or when smtp_tls_security_level is set to its
default (backwards compatible) empty value, the appropriate configuration
settings are "smtp_enforce_tls = yes" and "smtp_tls_enforce_peername = yes"
with additional settings to harden peer certificate verification against forged
DNS data. For LMTP, use the corresponding "lmtp_" parameters.
If the server certificate chain is trusted (see smtp_tls_CAfile and
smtp_tls_CApath), any DNS names in the SubjectAlternativeName certificate
extension are used to verify the server name. If no DNS names are specified,
the CommonName is checked. If you want mandatory encryption without server
certificate verification, see above.
Despite the potential for eliminating "man-in-the-middle" and other attacks,
mandatory secure server certificate verification is not viable as a default
Internet mail delivery policy. Most MX hosts do not support TLS at all, and a
significant portion of TLS enabled MTAs use self-signed certificates, or
certificates that are signed by a private certificate authority. On a machine
that delivers mail to the Internet, you should not configure secure TLS
verification as a default policy.
Mandatory secure server certificate verification as a default security level
may be appropriate if you know that you will only connect to servers that
support RFC 2487 and that present verifiable server certificates. An example
would be a client that sends all email to a central mailhub that offers the
necessary STARTTLS support.
You can enable secure TLS verification just for specific destinations. With the
Postfix 2.3+ TLS policy table, specify the "secure" security level. With the
obsolete per-site table, specify the "MUST" keyword and harden the certificate
verification against DNS forgery. While the obsolete approach still works with
Postfix 2.3, it is strongly discouraged: users of Postfix 2.3+ should use the
new TLS policy settings.
Examples:
Secure-channel TLS without transport(5) table overrides:
The client will encrypt all traffic and verify the destination name immune from
forged DNS responses. MX lookups are still used to find the SMTP servers for
example.com, but these are not used when checking the names in the server
certificate(s). Rather, the requirement is that the MX hosts for example.com
have trusted certificates with a subject name of example.com or a sub-domain,
see the documentation for the smtp_tls_secure_cert_match parameter.
The related domains example.co.uk and example.co.jp are hosted on the same MX
hosts as the primary example.com domain, and traffic to these is secured by
verifying the primary example.com domain in the server certificates. This frees
the server administrator from needing the CA to sign certificates that list all
the secondary domains. The downside is that clients that want secure channels
to the secondary domains need explicit TLS policy table entries.
Note, there are two ways to handle related domains. The first is to use the
default routing for each domain, but add policy table entries to override the
expected certificate subject name. The second is to override the next-hop in
the transport table, and use a single policy table entry for the common
nexthop. We choose the first approach, because it works better when domain
ownership changes. With the second approach we securely deliver mail to the
wrong destination, with the first approach, authentication fails and mail stays
in the local queue, the first approach is more appropriate in most cases.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/CAfile.pem
smtp_tls_policy_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_policy
/etc/postfix/transport:
/etc/postfix/tls_policy:
example.com secure
example.co.uk secure match=example.com:.example.com
example.co.jp secure match=example.com:.example.com
Secure-channel TLS with transport(5) table overrides:
In this case traffic to example.com and its related domains is sent to a single
logical gateway (to avoid a single point of failure, its name may resolve to
one or more load-balancer addresses, or to the combined addresses of multiple
physical hosts). All the physical hosts reachable via the gateway's IP
addresses have the logical gateway name listed in their certificates. This
secure-channel configuration can also be implemented via a hardened variant of
the MUST policy in the obsolete per-site table. As stated above, this approach
has the potential to mis-deliver email if the related domains change hands.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/CAfile.pem
transport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transport
smtp_tls_policy_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_policy
/etc/postfix/transport:
example.com smtp:[tls.example.com]
example.co.uk smtp:[tls.example.com]
example.co.jp smtp:[tls.example.com]
/etc/postfix/tls_policy:
[tls.example.com] secure match=tls.example.com
Postfix 2.2.9+ syntax:
NNoottee:: Avoid policy lookups with the bare hostname (for example,
"tls.example.com"). Instead, use the destination (for example, "
[tls.example.com]") as the per-site table lookup key (a recipient domain or MX-
enabled transport nexthop with no port suffix may look like a bare hostname,
but is still a suitable destination). With Postfix 2.3+, do not use the
obsolete per-site table; use the new policy table instead.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_cname_overrides_servername = no
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/CAfile.pem
transport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transport
smtp_tls_per_site = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_per_site
/etc/postfix/transport:
example.com smtp:[tls.example.com]
example.co.uk smtp:[tls.example.com]
example.co.jp smtp:[tls.example.com]
/etc/postfix/tls_per_site:
[tls.example.com] MUST
TTLLSS ppoolliiccyy ttaabbllee
Postfix 2.3 introduces a new more flexible TLS policy table. For earlier
releases, read the description of the obsolete Postfix 2.2 per-site table.
A small fraction of servers offer STARTTLS but the negotiation consistently
fails. With Postfix 2.3, so long as encryption is not enforced, the delivery is
immediately retried with TLS disabled. You no longer need to explicitly disable
TLS for the problem destinations. As soon as their TLS software or
configuration is repaired, encryption will be used.
The new policy table is specified via the smtp_tls_policy_maps parameter. This
lists optional lookup tables with the Postfix SMTP client TLS security policy
by next-hop destination. When $smtp_tls_policy_maps is not empty, the obsolete
smtp_tls_per_site parameter is ignored (a warning is written to the logs if
both parameter values are non-empty).
The TLS policy table is indexed by the full next-hop destination, which is
either the recipient domain, or the verbatim next-hop specified in the
transport table, $local_transport, $virtual_transport, $relay_transport or
$default_transport. This includes any enclosing square brackets and any non-
default destination server port suffix. The LMTP socket type prefix (inet: or
unix:) is not included in the lookup key.
Only the next-hop domain, or $myhostname with LMTP over UNIX-domain sockets, is
used as the nexthop name for certificate verification. The port and any
enclosing square brackets are used in the table lookup key, but are not used
for server name verification.
When the lookup key is a domain name without enclosing square brackets or any :
port suffix (typically the recipient domain), and the full domain is not found
in the table, just as with the transport(5) table, the parent domain starting
with a leading "." is matched recursively. This allows one to specify a
security policy for a recipient domain and all its sub-domains.
The lookup result is a security level, followed by an optional list of
whitespace and/or comma separated name=value attributes that override related
main.cf settings. The TLS security levels are described above. Below, we
describe the corresponding table syntax:
nnoonnee
No TLS. No additional attributes are supported at this level.
mmaayy
Opportunistic TLS. No additional attributes are supported at this level.
eennccrryypptt
Mandatory TLS encryption. Mail is delivered only if remote SMTP server
offers STARTTLS and the TLS handshake succeeds. At this level and higher
the optional "ciphers" attribute overrides the main.cf
smtp_tls_mandatory_ciphers parameter and the optional "protocols" keyword
overrides the main.cf smtp_tls_mandatory_protocols parameter.
vveerriiffyy
Mandatory server certificate verification. Mail is delivered only if the
TLS handshake succeeds, if the server certificate can be validated (not
expired or revoked, and signed by a trusted certificate authority), and if
the server certificate name matches the optional "match" attribute (or the
main.cf smtp_tls_verify_cert_match parameter value when no optional "match"
attribute is specified).
sseeccuurree
Secure-channel TLS. Mail is delivered only if the TLS handshake succeeds,
if the server certificate can be validated (not expired or revoked, and
signed by a trusted certificate authority), and if the server certificate
name matches the optional "match" attribute (or the main.cf
smtp_tls_secure_cert_match parameter value when no optional "match"
attribute is specified).
Notes:
* The "match" attribute is especially useful to verify TLS certificates for
domains that are hosted on a shared server. In that case, specify "match"
rules for the shared server's name. While secure verification can also be
achieved with manual routing overrides in Postfix transport(5) tables, that
approach can deliver mail to the wrong host when domains are assigned to
new gateway hosts. The "match" attribute approach avoids the problems of
manual routing overrides; mail is deferred if verification of a new MX host
fails.
* When a policy table entry specifies multiple match patterns, multiple match
strategies, or multiple protocols, these must be separated by colons.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_policy_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/tls_policy
/etc/postfix/tls_policy:
example.edu none
example.mil may
example.gov encrypt protocols=SSLv3:TLSv1 ciphers=high
example.com verify
match=hostname:dot-nexthop protocols=SSLv3:TLSv1 ciphers=high
example.net secure
.example.net secure match=.example.net:example.net
[mail.example.org]:587 secure match=nexthop
NNoottee:: The "hostname" strategy if listed in a non-default setting of
smtp_tls_secure_cert_match or in the "match" attribute in the policy table can
render the "secure" level vulnerable to DNS forgery. Do not use the "hostname"
strategy for secure-channel configurations in environments where DNS security
is not assured.
OObbssoolleettee ppeerr--ssiittee TTLLSS ppoolliiccyy ssuuppppoorrtt
This section describes an obsolete per-site TLS policy mechanism. Unlike the
Postfix 2.3 policy table mechanism, this uses as a policy lookup key a
potentially untrusted server hostname, and lacks control over what names can
appear in server certificates. Because of this, the obsolete mechanism is
typically vulnerable to false DNS hostname information in MX or CNAME records.
These attacks can be eliminated only with great difficulty. The new policy
table makes secure-channel configurations easier and provides more control over
the cipher and protocol selection for sessions with mandatory encryption.
Avoid policy lookups with the bare hostname. Instead, use the full destination
nexthop (enclosed in [] with a possible ":port" suffix) as the per-site table
lookup key (a recipient domain or MX-enabled transport nexthop with no port
suffix may look like a bare hostname, but is still a suitable destination).
With Postfix 2.3+, use of the obsolete approach documented here is strongly
discouraged: use the new policy table instead.
Starting with Postfix 2.3, the underlying TLS enforcement levels are common to
the obsolete per-site table and the new policy table. The main.cf
smtp_tls_mandatory_ciphers and smtp_tls_mandatory_protocols parameters control
the TLS ciphers and protocols for mandatory encryption regardless of which
table is used. The smtp_tls_verify_cert_match parameter determines the match
strategy for the obsolete "MUST" keyword in the same way as for the "verify"
level in the new policy.
With Postfix < 2.3, the obsolete smtp_tls_cipherlist parameter is also applied
for opportunistic TLS sessions, and should be used with care, or not at all.
Setting cipherlist restrictions that are incompatible with a remote SMTP server
render that server unreachable, TLS handshakes are always attempted and always
fail.
When smtp_tls_policy_maps is empty (default) and smtp_tls_per_site is not
empty, the per-site table is searched for a policy that matches the following
information:
remote SMTP server hostname
This is simply the DNS name of the server that the Postfix SMTP client
connects to; this name may be obtained from other DNS lookups, such as
MX lookups or CNAME lookups. Use of the hostname lookup key is
discouraged; always use the next-hop destination instead.
next-hop destination
This is normally the domain portion of the recipient address, but it
may be overridden by information from the transport(5) table, from the
relayhost parameter setting, or from the relay_transport setting. When
it is not the recipient domain, the next-hop destination can have the
Postfix-specific form "[name]", "[name]:port", "name" or "name:port".
This is the recommended lookup key for per-site policy lookups (and
incidentally for SASL password lookups).
When both the hostname lookup and the next-hop lookup succeed, the host policy
does not automatically override the next-hop policy. Instead, precedence is
given to either the more specific or the more secure per-site policy as
described below.
The smtp_tls_per_site table uses a simple "name whitespace value" format.
Specify host names or next-hop destinations on the left-hand side; no wildcards
are allowed. On the right hand side specify one of the following keywords:
NONE
No TLS. This overrides a less specific "MAY" lookup result from the
alternate host or next-hop lookup key, and overrides the global
smtp_use_tls, smtp_enforce_tls, and smtp_tls_enforce_peername settings.
MAY
Opportunistic TLS. This has less precedence than a more specific result
(including "NONE") from the alternate host or next-hop lookup key, and
has less precedence than the more specific global "smtp_enforce_tls =
yes" or "smtp_tls_enforce_peername = yes".
MUST_NOPEERMATCH
Mandatory TLS encryption. This overrides a less secure "NONE" or a less
specific "MAY" lookup result from the alternate host or next-hop lookup
key, and overrides the global smtp_use_tls, smtp_enforce_tls and
smtp_tls_enforce_peername settings.
MUST
Mandatory server certificate verification. This overrides a less secure
"NONE" and "MUST_NOPEERMATCH" or a less specific "MAY" lookup result
from the alternate host or next-hop lookup key, and overrides the
global smtp_use_tls, smtp_enforce_tls and smtp_tls_enforce_peername
settings.
The precedences between global (main.cf) and per-site TLS policies can be
summarized as follows:
* When neither the remote SMTP server hostname nor the next-hop destination
are found in the smtp_tls_per_site table, the policy is based on
smtp_use_tls, smtp_enforce_tls and smtp_tls_enforce_peername. Note:
"smtp_enforce_tls = yes" and "smtp_tls_enforce_peername = yes" imply
"smtp_use_tls = yes".
* When both hostname and next-hop destination lookups produce a result, the
more specific per-site policy (NONE, MUST, etc) overrides the less specific
one (MAY), and the more secure per-site policy (MUST, etc) overrides the
less secure one (NONE).
* After the per-site policy lookups are combined, the result generally
overrides the global policy. The exception is the less specific "MAY" per-
site policy, which is overruled by the more specific global
"smtp_enforce_tls = yes" with server certificate verification as specified
with the smtp_tls_enforce_peername parameter.
CClloossiinngg aa DDNNSS lloooopphhoollee wwiitthh oobbssoolleettee ppeerr--ssiittee TTLLSS ppoolliicciieess
For a general discussion of TLS security for SMTP see TLS limitations above.
What follows applies only to Postfix 2.2.9 and subsequent Postfix 2.2 patch
levels. Do not use this approach with Postfix 2.3+; instead see the
instructions under secure server certificate verification.
As long as no secure DNS lookup mechanism is available, false hostnames in MX
or CNAME responses can change Postfix's notion of the server hostname that is
used for TLS policy lookup and server certificate verification. Even with a
perfect match between the server hostname and the server certificate, there is
no guarantee that Postfix is connected to the right server. To avoid this
loophole, take all of the following steps:
1. Use a dedicated message delivery transport (for example, "securetls") as
illustrated below.
2. Eliminate MX lookups. Specify local transport(5) table entries for
sensitive domains with explicit securetls:[mailhost] or securetls:
[mailhost]:port destinations (you can assure security of this table unlike
DNS). This prevents false hostname information in DNS MX records from
changing Postfix's notion of the server hostname that is used for TLS
policy lookup and server certificate verification. The "securetls"
transport is configured to enforce TLS with peername verification, and to
disable the SMTP connection cache which could interfere with enforcement of
smtp_tls_per_site policies.
3. Disallow CNAME hostname overrides. In main.cf, specify
"smtp_cname_overrides_servername = no". This prevents false hostname
information in DNS CNAME records from changing the server hostname that
Postfix uses for TLS policy lookup and server certificate verification.
This feature requires Postfix 2.2.9 or later. The default value is "no"
starting with Postfix 2.3.
Example:
We give the non-default "securetls" transport an explicit master.cf process
limit, so that we don't raise its process limit when raising
$default_process_limit. The total process limit for *all* transports should
stay somewhat under 1024 (the typical select() file descriptor limit);
otherwise transports may be throttled under steady high load, compounding
congestion. It is not uncommon at high volume sites to set the default process
limit to 500 or more.
We also default the "securetls" transport TLS security level to MUST, obviating
the need for per-site table entries for secure-channel destinations.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
transport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transport
/etc/postfix/transport:
example.com securetls:[tls.example.com]
/etc/postfix/master.cf:
securetls unix - - n - 100 smtp
-o smtp_enforce_tls=yes
-o smtp_tls_enforce_peername=yes
DDiissccoovveerriinngg sseerrvveerrss tthhaatt ssuuppppoorrtt TTLLSS
As we decide on a "per site" basis whether or not to use TLS, it would be good
to have a list of sites that offered "STARTTLS". We can collect it ourselves
with this option.
If the smtp_tls_note_starttls_offer feature is enabled and a server offers
STARTTLS while TLS is not already enabled for that server, the Postfix SMTP
client logs a line as follows:
postfix/smtp[pid]: Host offered STARTTLS: [hostname.example.com]
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_note_starttls_offer = yes
SSeerrvveerr cceerrttiiffiiccaattee vveerriiffiiccaattiioonn ddeepptthh
When verifying a remote SMTP server certificate, a verification depth of 1 is
sufficient if the certificate is directly issued by a CA specified with
smtp_tls_CAfile or smtp_tls_CApath. The default value of 5 should also suffice
for longer chains (where the root CA issues a special CA certificate which then
issues the actual certificate).
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_scert_verifydepth = 5
CClliieenntt--ssiiddee cciipphheerr ccoonnttrroollss
The Postfix SMTP client supports 5 distinct cipher security levels as specified
by the smtp_tls_mandatory_ciphers configuration parameter. This setting
controls the minimum acceptable SMTP client TLS cipher grade for use with
mandatory TLS encryption. The default value "medium" is suitable for most
destinations with which you may want to enforce TLS, and is beyond the reach of
today's crypt-analytic methods. See smtp_tls_policy_maps for information on how
to configure ciphers on a per-destination basis.
By default anonymous ciphers are allowed, and automatically disabled when
server certificates are verified. If you want to disable anonymous ciphers even
at the "encrypt" security level, set "smtp_tls_mandatory_exclude_ciphers =
aNULL"; and to disable anonymous ciphers even with opportunistic TLS, set
"smtp_tls_exclude_ciphers = aNULL". There is generally no need to take these
measures. Anonymous ciphers save bandwidth and TLS session cache space, if
certificates are ignored, there is little point in requesting them.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_mandatory_ciphers = medium
smtp_tls_mandatory_exclude_ciphers = RC4, MD5
smtp_tls_exclude_ciphers = aNULL
MMiisscceellllaanneeoouuss cclliieenntt ccoonnttrroollss
The smtp_starttls_timeout parameter limits the time of Postfix SMTP client
write and read operations during TLS startup and shutdown handshake procedures.
In case of problems the Postfix SMTP client tries the next network address on
the mail exchanger list, and defers delivery if no alternative server is
available.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_starttls_timeout = 300s
TTLLSS mmaannaaggeerr ssppeecciiffiicc sseettttiinnggss
The security of cryptographic software such as TLS depends critically on the
ability to generate unpredictable numbers for keys and other information. To
this end, the tlsmgr(8) process maintains a Pseudo Random Number Generator
(PRNG) pool. This is queried by the smtp(8) and smtpd(8) processes when they
initialize. By default, these daemons request 32 bytes, the equivalent to 256
bits. This is more than sufficient to generate a 128bit (or 168bit) session
key.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
tls_daemon_random_bytes = 32
In order to feed its in-memory PRNG pool, the tlsmgr(8) reads entropy from an
external source, both at startup and during run-time. Specify a good entropy
source, like EGD or /dev/urandom; be sure to only use non-blocking sources (on
OpenBSD, use /dev/arandom when tlsmgr(8) complains about /dev/urandom timeout
errors). If the entropy source is not a regular file, you must prepend the
source type to the source name: "dev:" for a device special file, or "egd:" for
a source with EGD compatible socket interface.
Examples (specify only one in main.cf):
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom
tls_random_source = egd:/var/run/egd-pool
By default, tlsmgr(8) reads 32 bytes from the external entropy source at each
seeding event. This amount (256bits) is more than sufficient for generating a
128bit symmetric key. With EGD and device entropy sources, the tlsmgr(8) limits
the amount of data read at each step to 255 bytes. If you specify a regular
file as entropy source, a larger amount of data can be read.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
tls_random_bytes = 32
In order to update its in-memory PRNG pool, the tlsmgr(8) queries the external
entropy source again after a pseudo-random amount of time. The time is
calculated using the PRNG, and is between 0 and the maximal time specified with
tls_random_reseed_period. The default maximal time interval is 1 hour.
Example:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
tls_random_reseed_period = 3600s
The tlsmgr(8) process saves the PRNG state to a persistent exchange file at
regular times and when the process terminates, so that it can recover the PRNG
state the next time it starts up. This file is created when it does not exist.
Its default location is under the Postfix configuration directory, which is not
the proper place for information that is modified by Postfix. Instead, the file
location should probably be on the /var partition (but nnoott inside the chroot
jail).
Examples:
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
tls_random_exchange_name = /etc/postfix/prng_exch
tls_random_prng_update_period = 3600s
GGeettttiinngg ssttaarrtteedd,, qquuiicckk aanndd ddiirrttyy
The following steps will get you started quickly. Because you sign your own
Postfix public key certificate, you get TLS encryption but no TLS
authentication. This is sufficient for testing, and for exchanging email with
sites that you have no trust relationship with. For real authentication, your
Postfix public key certificate needs to be signed by a recognized Certificate
Authority, and Postfix needs to be configured with a list of public key
certificates of Certificate Authorities, so that Postfix can verify the public
key certificates of remote hosts.
In the examples below, user input is shown in bboolldd font, and a "#" prompt
indicates a super-user shell.
* Become your own Certificate Authority, so that you can sign your own public
keys. This example uses the CA.pl script that ships with OpenSSL. By
default, OpenSSL installs this as /usr/local/ssl/misc/CA.pl, but your
mileage may vary. The script creates a private key in ./demoCA/private/
cakey.pem and a public key in ./demoCA/cacert.pem.
% //uussrr//llooccaall//ssssll//mmiisscc//CCAA..ppll --nneewwccaa
CA certificate filename (or enter to create)
Making CA certificate ...
Using configuration from /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf
Generating a 1024 bit RSA private key
....................++++++
.....++++++
writing new private key to './demoCA/private/cakey.pem'
Enter PEM pass phrase:wwhhaatteevveerr
* Create an unpassworded private key for host FOO and create an unsigned
public key certificate.
% ooppeennssssll rreeqq --nneeww --nnooddeess --kkeeyyoouutt FFOOOO--kkeeyy..ppeemm --oouutt FFOOOO--rreeqq..ppeemm --ddaayyss
336655
Using configuration from /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf
Generating a 1024 bit RSA private key
........................................++++++
....++++++
writing new private key to 'FOO-key.pem'
-----
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be
incorporated
into your certificate request.
What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a
DN.
There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank
For some fields there will be a default value,
If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:UUSS
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:NNeeww YYoorrkk
Locality Name (eg, city) []:WWeessttcchheesstteerr
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:PPoorrccuuppiinnee
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:
Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []:FFOOOO
Email Address []:wwiieettssee@@ppoorrccuuppiinnee..oorrgg
Please enter the following 'extra' attributes
to be sent with your certificate request
A challenge password []:wwhhaatteevveerr
An optional company name []:
* Sign the public key certificate for host FOO with the Certification
Authority private key that we created a few steps ago.
% ooppeennssssll ccaa --oouutt FFOOOO--cceerrtt..ppeemm --iinnffiilleess FFOOOO--rreeqq..ppeemm
Using configuration from /etc/ssl/openssl.cnf
Enter PEM pass phrase:wwhhaatteevveerr
Check that the request matches the signature
Signature ok
The Subjects Distinguished Name is as follows
countryName :PRINTABLE:'US'
stateOrProvinceName :PRINTABLE:'New York'
localityName :PRINTABLE:'Westchester'
organizationName :PRINTABLE:'Porcupine'
commonName :PRINTABLE:'FOO'
emailAddress :IA5STRING:'wietse@porcupine.org'
Certificate is to be certified until Nov 21 19:40:56 2005 GMT (365
days)
Sign the certificate? [y/n]:yy
1 out of 1 certificate requests certified, commit? [y/n]yy
Write out database with 1 new entries
Data Base Updated
* Install the host private key, the host public key certificate, and the
Certification Authority certificate files. This requires super-user
privileges.
# ccpp ddeemmooCCAA//ccaacceerrtt..ppeemm FFOOOO--kkeeyy..ppeemm FFOOOO--cceerrtt..ppeemm //eettcc//ppoossttffiixx
# cchhmmoodd 664444 //eettcc//ppoossttffiixx//FFOOOO--cceerrtt..ppeemm //eettcc//ppoossttffiixx//ccaacceerrtt..ppeemm
# cchhmmoodd 440000 //eettcc//ppoossttffiixx//FFOOOO--kkeeyy..ppeemm
* Configure Postfix, by adding the following to /etc/postfix/main.cf. It is
generally best to not configure client certificates, unless there are
servers which authenticate your mail submission via client certificates.
Often servers that perform TLS client authentication will issue the
required certificates signed by their own CA. If you configure the client
certificate and key incorrectly, you will be unable to send mail to sites
that request client certificate, but don't require them from all clients.
/etc/postfix/main.cf:
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/cacert.pem
smtp_tls_session_cache_database =
btree:/var/spool/postfix/smtp_tls_session_cache
smtp_use_tls = yes
smtpd_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/cacert.pem
smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/FOO-cert.pem
smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/FOO-key.pem
smtpd_tls_received_header = yes
smtpd_tls_session_cache_database =
btree:/var/spool/postfix/smtpd_tls_session_cache
tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom
# Postfix 2.3 and later
smtpd_tls_security_level = may
# Obsolete, but still supported
smtpd_use_tls = yes
RReeppoorrttiinngg pprroobblleemmss
Problems are preferably reported via <postfix-users@postfix.org>. See http://
www.postfix.org/lists.html for subscription information. When reporting a
problem, please be thorough in the report. Patches, when possible, are greatly
appreciated too.
CCoommppaattiibbiilliittyy wwiitthh PPoossttffiixx << 22..22 TTLLSS ssuuppppoorrtt
Postfix version 2.2 TLS support is based on the Postfix/TLS patch by Lutz
Jnicke, but differs in a few minor ways.
* main.cf: Specify "btree" instead of "sdbm" for TLS session cache databases.
TLS session cache databases are now accessed only by the tlsmgr(8) process,
so there are no more concurrency issues. Although Postfix has an sdbm
client, the sdbm library (1000 lines of code) is not included with Postfix.
TLS session caches can use any database that can store objects of several
kbytes or more, and that implements the sequence operation. In most cases,
btree databases should be adequate.
NOTE: You cannot use DBM databases. TLS session objects are too large.
* master.cf: Specify "unix" instead of "fifo" as the tlsmgr service type.
The smtp(8) and smtpd(8) processes now use a client-server protocol in
order to access the tlsmgr(8) pseudo-random number generation (PRNG) pool,
and in order to access the TLS session cache databases. Such a protocol
cannot be run across fifos.
* smtp_tls_per_site: the MUST_NOPEERMATCH per-site policy cannot override the
global "smtp_tls_enforce_peername = yes" setting.
* smtp_tls_per_site: a combined (NONE + MAY) lookup result for (hostname and
next-hop destination) produces counter-intuitive results for different
main.cf settings. TLS is enabled with "smtp_tls_enforce_peername = no", but
it is disabled when both "smtp_enforce_tls = yes" and
"smtp_tls_enforce_peername = yes".
The smtp_tls_per_site limitations were removed by the end of the Postfix 2.2
support cycle.
CCrreeddiittss
* TLS support for Postfix was originally developed by Lutz Jnicke at Cottbus
Technical University.
* Wietse Venema adopted the code, did some restructuring, and compiled this
part of the documentation from Lutz's documents.
* Victor Duchovni was instrumental with the re-implementation of the
smtp_tls_per_site code in terms of enforcement levels, which simplified the
implementation greatly.
|