Home Mail Lab

Project Summary

Field Value

PRJ ID

PRJ-2026-04-domus-mail-lab

Owner

Evan Rosado

Priority

P2

Category

Infrastructure / Learning Lab

Status

Draft — not started

Type

Deployment: Mail server lab (postfix + dovecot + authentication + SIEM + behavioral detection)

Strategic Context

Hands-on mail infrastructure knowledge to support CHLA Abnormal Security migration (Cisco ESA → Abnormal API)

Deployment Status

Phase Description Status Notes

0: Planning

Architecture design, IP allocation, DNS plan, port matrix, firewall rules

❌ Not started

 — 

1: VM Provision

KVM VM on kvm-01.inside.domusdigitalis.dev, Rocky Linux 9, base config, BIND registration

❌ Not started

 — 

2: Postfix MTA

SMTP server — receive, relay, TLS via Vault PKI, submission port

❌ Not started

 — 

3: Dovecot IMAP

IMAP server — Maildir storage, TLS, authentication backend

❌ Not started

 — 

4: DNS Records

MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC records in BIND via nsupdate

❌ Not started

 — 

5: DKIM/DMARC/SPF

OpenDKIM + OpenDMARC milters, SPF verification, header authentication

❌ Not started

 — 

6: Wazuh Logging

Postfix syslog → Wazuh, custom decoders/rules, mail security dashboard

❌ Not started

Maps to: ESA syslog → QRadar

7: Behavioral Detection

Python API-based detection — reads IMAP, scores headers, auto-remediates, forwards to Wazuh

❌ Not started

Maps to: Abnormal API-based post-delivery detection

8: Validation

End-to-end test matrix — clean mail, SPF fail, spoofed sender, DKIM tampered, milter removal

❌ Not started

Maps to: Abnormal pilot validation (Phase 4)

Prerequisites Assessment

Already In Place

Dependency Details Status

DNS (BIND HA)

10.50.1.90 primary, authoritative for inside.domusdigitalis.dev. nsupdate with TSIG keys operational.

✅ Ready

Active Directory

home-dc01.inside.domusdigitalis.dev (10.50.1.50). User directory for mail authentication.

✅ Ready

Vault PKI

vault-01.inside.domusdigitalis.dev (10.50.1.60). Issuing CA at pki_int. TLS certs for SMTP/IMAP.

✅ Ready

Wazuh SIEM

v4.14.3 on k3s (10.50.1.120). Agent-based monitoring with OpenSearch backend.

✅ Ready

VyOS Firewall

HA pair (10.50.1.2/10.50.1.3), VIP 10.50.1.1. Zone-based rules.

✅ Ready

KVM Hypervisor

kvm-01.inside.domusdigitalis.dev (10.50.1.100). Rocky Linux. 8+ VMs running.

✅ Ready

Synology NAS

nas-01.inside.domusdigitalis.dev (10.50.1.70). NFS exports for backup/archive.

✅ Ready

Mail Client (aerc)

Terminal MUA installed on workstation. IMAP/SMTP capable.

✅ Ready

Needs Provisioning

Component Action

mail-01 VM

virt-install on kvm-01.inside.domusdigitalis.dev, Rocky Linux 9, 2 vCPU, 2GB RAM, 20GB disk

Postfix

MTA — SMTP receive/relay on ports 25/587

Dovecot

MDA + IMAP server on port 993

OpenDKIM

DKIM signing/verification milter

OpenDMARC

DMARC policy enforcement milter

DNS Records

MX, A, SPF TXT, DKIM TXT, DMARC TXT for inside.domusdigitalis.dev

VyOS Rules

Allow 25, 587, 993 to 10.50.1.91

Vault Certificate

TLS cert: CN=mail-01.inside.domusdigitalis.dev, SANs for SMTP STARTTLS + IMAPS

Risk

Risk Mitigation Severity

Open relay

Restrict mynetworks to lab VLAN, require SASL auth on submission port

High

DNS pollution

Lab-only MX — inside.domusdigitalis.dev is internal, no internet mail routing

Low

Certificate expiry

Vault auto-renewal via cron or cert-manager pattern

Medium

Metadata

Field Value

PRJ ID

PRJ-2026-04-domus-mail-lab

Author

Evan Rosado

Created

2026-04-09

Last Updated

2026-04-09

Status

Draft — Phase 0 not started

Category

Infrastructure / Learning Lab

Priority

P2

Platform

KVM virtual machine on kvm-01.inside.domusdigitalis.dev

Target OS

Rocky Linux 9 (matches existing KVM hosts)

Purpose

Production-grade mail server lab — postfix, dovecot, DKIM/DMARC/SPF, Wazuh integration, behavioral detection. Directly supports Abnormal Security migration knowledge.

Related

Abnormal Security Migration