Virtual Users And Domains With Postfix, Courier, MySQL And SquirrelMail (Ubuntu 13.10)

This tutorial exists for these OS versions

1 Preliminary Note
2 Install Postfix, Courier, Saslauthd, MySQL, phpMyAdmin
3 Apply The Quota Patch To Postfix
4 Create The MySQL Database For Postfix/Courier
5 Configure Postfix
6 Configure Saslauthd
7 Configure Courier
8 Modify /etc/aliases
9 Install amavisd-new, SpamAssassin, And ClamAV
10 Install Razor, Pyzor And DCC And Configure SpamAssassin

This tutorial is Copyright (c) 2014 by Falko Timme & Srijan Kishore. It is derived from a tutorial from Christoph Haas which you can find at http://workaround.org. You are free to use this tutorial under the Creative Commons license 2.5 or any later version.

This document describes how to install a Postfix mail server that is based on virtual users and domains, i.e. users and domains that are in a MySQL database. I'll also demonstrate the installation and configuration of Courier (Courier-POP3, Courier-IMAP), so that Courier can authenticate against the same MySQL database Postfix uses.

The resulting Postfix server is capable of SMTP-AUTH and TLS and quota (quota is not built into Postfix by default, I'll show how to patch your Postfix appropriately). Passwords are stored in encrypted form in the database (most documents I found were dealing with plain text passwords which is a security risk). In addition to that, this tutorial covers the installation of Amavisd, SpamAssassin and ClamAV so that emails will be scanned for spam and viruses. I will also show how to install SquirrelMail as a webmail interface so that users can read and send emails and change their passwords.

The advantage of such a "virtual" setup (virtual users and domains in a MySQL database) is that it is far more performant than a setup that is based on "real" system users. With this virtual setup your mail server can handle thousands of domains and users. Besides, it is easier to administrate because you only have to deal with the MySQL database when you add new users/domains or edit existing ones. No more postmap commands to create db files, no more reloading of Postfix, etc. For the administration of the MySQL database you can use web based tools like phpMyAdmin which will also be installed in this howto. The third advantage is that users have an email address as user name (instead of a user name + an email address) which is easier to understand and keep in mind.

This howto is meant as a practical guide; it does not cover the theoretical backgrounds. They are treated in a lot of other documents in the web.

This document comes without warranty of any kind! I want to say that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

This tutorial is based on Ubuntu 13.10 Server (Saucy Salamander), so you should set up a basic Ubuntu 13.10 server installation before you continue with this tutorial. The system should have a static IP address. I use 192.168.0.100 as my IP address in this tutorial and server1.example.com as the hostname.

Make sure that you are logged in as root (type in

sudo su

to become root), because we must run all the steps from this tutorial as root user.

It is very important that you make /bin/sh a symlink to /bin/bash...

dpkg-reconfigure dash

Use dash as the default system shell (/bin/sh)? <-- No

... and that you disable AppArmor:

/etc/init.d/apparmor stop 
update-rc.d -f apparmor remove 
apt-get remove apparmor apparmor-utils

2 Install Postfix, Courier, Saslauthd, MySQL, phpMyAdmin

To install Postfix, Courier, Saslauthd, MySQL, and phpMyAdmin, we simply run

apt-get install postfix postfix-mysql postfix-doc mysql-client mysql-server courier-authdaemon courier-authlib-mysql courier-pop courier-pop-ssl courier-imap courier-imap-ssl libsasl2-2 libsasl2-modules libsasl2-modules-sql sasl2-bin libpam-mysql openssl phpmyadmin apache2 libapache2-mod-php5 php5 php5-mysql libpam-smbpass

You will be asked a few questions:

New password for the MySQL "root" user: <-- yourrootsqlpassword
Repeat password for the MySQL "root" user: <-- yourrootsqlpassword
Create directories for web-based administration? <-- No
General type of mail configuration: <-- Internet Site
System mail name: <-- server1.example.com
SSL certificate required <-- Ok
Web server to reconfigure automatically: <-- apache2
Configure database for phpmyadmin with dbconfig-common? <-- No

3 Apply The Quota Patch To Postfix

We have to get the Postfix sources, patch it with the quota patch, build new Postfix .deb packages and install those .deb packages:

apt-get build-dep postfix

cd /usr/src
apt-get source postfix

(Make sure you use the correct Postfix version in the following commands. I have Postfix 2.10.2 installed. You can find out your Postfix version by running

postconf -d | grep mail_version

The output should look like this:

root@server1:/usr/src# postconf -d | grep mail_version
mail_version = 2.10.2
milter_macro_v = $mail_name $mail_version
root@server1:/usr/src#

wget http://vda.sourceforge.net/VDA/postfix-vda-v13-2.10.0.patch
cd postfix-2.10.2
patch -p1 < ../postfix-vda-v13-2.10.0.patch

Next open debian/rules and change DEB_BUILD_HARDENING from 1 to 0:

vi debian/rules

[...]
export DEB_BUILD_HARDENING=0
[...]

If you don't do this, your build will fail with the following error messages:

maildir.c: In function âdeliver_maildirâ:
maildir.c:974:17: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
maildir.c:977:17: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
maildir.c:983:17: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
maildir.c:986:17: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
maildir.c: In function âsql2fileâ:
maildir.c:404:25: warning: ignoring return value of âreadâ, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
maildir.c:417:26: warning: ignoring return value of âwriteâ, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make: *** [maildir.o] Error 1
make: Leaving directory `/usr/src/postfix-2.10.2/src/virtual'
make[1]: *** [update] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/postfix-2.10.2'
make: *** [build] Error 2
dpkg-buildpackage: error: debian/rules build gave error exit status 2
root@server1:/usr/src/postfix-2.10.2#

Now we can build the new Postfix .deb packages:

dpkg-buildpackage

Now we go one directory up, that's where the new .deb packages have been created:

cd ..

The command

ls -l

shows you the available packages:

root@server1:/usr/src# ls -l
total 7124
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root    4096 Apr 16 04:29 postfix-2.10.2
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   48594 Apr 16 04:29 postfix-cdb_2.10.2-1_amd64.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  161974 Apr 16 04:29 postfix-dev_2.10.2-1_all.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1094344 Apr 16 04:29 postfix-doc_2.10.2-1_all.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   57342 Apr 16 04:29 postfix-ldap_2.10.2-1_amd64.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   50554 Apr 16 04:29 postfix-mysql_2.10.2-1_amd64.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   50804 Apr 16 04:29 postfix-pcre_2.10.2-1_amd64.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   50756 Apr 16 04:29 postfix-pgsql_2.10.2-1_amd64.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   55701 Jun  7  2013 postfix-vda-v13-2.10.0.patch
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  282175 Apr 16 04:28 postfix_2.10.2-1.diff.gz
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    1522 Apr 16 04:28 postfix_2.10.2-1.dsc
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    3899 Apr 16 04:29 postfix_2.10.2-1_amd64.changes
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1542368 Apr 16 04:29 postfix_2.10.2-1_amd64.deb
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 3828326 Sep 12  2013 postfix_2.10.2.orig.tar.gz

Pick the postfix and postfix-mysql packages and install them like this:

dpkg -i postfix_2.10.2-1_amd64.deb postfix-mysql_2.10.2-1_amd64.deb

4 Create The MySQL Database For Postfix/Courier

Now we create a database called mail:

mysqladmin -u root -p create mail

You will be asked for this question:

Enter Password: <-- yourrootsqlpassword

Next, we go to the MySQL shell:

mysql -u root -p

On the MySQL shell, we create the user mail_admin with the passwort mail_admin_password (replace it with your own password) who has SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE privileges on the mail database. This user will be used by Postfix and Courier to connect to the mail database:

GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON mail.* TO 'mail_admin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'mail_admin_password';
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON mail.* TO 'mail_admin'@'localhost.localdomain' IDENTIFIED BY 'mail_admin_password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Still on the MySQL shell, we create the tables needed by Postfix and Courier:

USE mail;

CREATE TABLE domains (
domain varchar(50) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (domain) )
ENGINE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE forwardings (
source varchar(80) NOT NULL,
destination TEXT NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (source) )
ENGINE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE users (
email varchar(80) NOT NULL,
password varchar(20) NOT NULL,
quota INT(10) DEFAULT '10485760',
PRIMARY KEY (email)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE transport (
domain varchar(128) NOT NULL default '',
transport varchar(128) NOT NULL default '',
UNIQUE KEY domain (domain)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

quit;

As you may have noticed, with the quit; command we have left the MySQL shell and are back on the Linux shell.

The domains table will store each virtual domain that Postfix should receive emails for (e.g. example.com).

domain

example.com

The forwardings table is for aliasing one email address to another, e.g. forward emails for [email protected] to [email protected].

source	destination
[email protected]	[email protected]

The users table stores all virtual users (i.e. email addresses, because the email address and user name is the same) and passwords (in encrypted form!) and a quota value for each mail box (in this example the default value is 10485760 bytes which means 10MB).

*email*	*password*	*quota*
[email protected]	No9.E4skNvGa. ("secret" in encrypted form)	10485760

The transport table is optional, it is for advanced users. It allows to forward mails for single users, whole domains or all mails to another server. For example,

*domain*	*transport*
example.com	smtp:[1.2.3.4]

would forward all emails for example.com via the smtp protocol to the server with the IP address 1.2.3.4 (the square brackets [] mean "do not make a lookup of the MX DNS record" (which makes sense for IP addresses...). If you use a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) instead you would not use the square brackets.).

BTW, (I'm assuming that the IP address of your mail server system is 192.168.0.100) you can access phpMyAdmin over http://192.168.0.100/phpmyadmin/ in a browser and log in as mail_admin. Then you can have a look at the database. Later on you can use phpMyAdmin to administrate your mail server.

5 Configure Postfix

Now we have to tell Postfix where it can find all the information in the database. Therefore we have to create six text files. You will notice that I tell Postfix to connect to MySQL on the IP address 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost. This is because Postfix is running in a chroot jail and does not have access to the MySQL socket which it would try to connect if I told Postfix to use localhost. If I use 127.0.0.1 Postfix uses TCP networking to connect to MySQL which is no problem even in a chroot jail (the alternative would be to move the MySQL socket into the chroot jail which causes some other problems).

Please make sure that /etc/mysql/my.cnf contains the following line:

vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf

[...]
# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
bind-address           = 127.0.0.1
[...]

If you had to modify /etc/mysql/my.cnf, please restart MySQL now:

/etc/init.d/mysql restart

Run

netstat -tap | grep mysql

to make sure that MySQL is listening on 127.0.0.1 (localhost.localdomain):

root@server1:~# netstat -tap | grep mysql
tcp        0      0 localhost.localdo:mysql *:*                     LISTEN      24970/mysqld    
root@server1:~#

Now let's create our six text files.

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_domains.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT domain AS virtual FROM domains WHERE domain='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_forwardings.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT destination FROM forwardings WHERE source='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailboxes.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT CONCAT(SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',-1),'/',SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',1),'/') FROM users WHERE email='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_email2email.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT email FROM users WHERE email='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_transports.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT transport FROM transport WHERE domain='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

vi /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailbox_limit_maps.cf

user = mail_admin
password = mail_admin_password
dbname = mail
query = SELECT quota FROM users WHERE email='%s'
hosts = 127.0.0.1

Then change the permissions and the group of these files:

chmod o= /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_*.cf
chgrp postfix /etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_*.cf

Now we create a user and group called vmail with the home directory /home/vmail. This is where all mail boxes will be stored.

groupadd -g 5000 vmail
useradd -g vmail -u 5000 vmail -d /home/vmail -m

Next we do some Postfix configuration. Go sure that you replace server1.example.com with a valid FQDN, otherwise your Postfix might not work properly!

postconf -e 'myhostname = server1.example.com'
postconf -e 'mydestination = server1.example.com, localhost, localhost.localdomain'
postconf -e 'mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8'
postconf -e 'virtual_alias_domains ='
postconf -e 'virtual_alias_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_forwardings.cf, mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_email2email.cf'
postconf -e 'virtual_mailbox_domains = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_domains.cf'
postconf -e 'virtual_mailbox_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailboxes.cf'
postconf -e 'virtual_mailbox_base = /home/vmail'
postconf -e 'virtual_uid_maps = static:5000'
postconf -e 'virtual_gid_maps = static:5000'
postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes'
postconf -e 'broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes'
postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_authenticated_header = yes'
postconf -e 'smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks, permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_unauth_destination'
postconf -e 'smtpd_use_tls = yes'
postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/postfix/smtpd.cert'
postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/postfix/smtpd.key'
postconf -e 'transport_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_transports.cf'
postconf -e 'virtual_maildir_extended = yes'
postconf -e 'virtual_mailbox_limit_maps = proxy:mysql:/etc/postfix/mysql-virtual_mailbox_limit_maps.cf'
postconf -e 'virtual_mailbox_limit_override = yes'
postconf -e 'virtual_maildir_limit_message = "The user you are trying to reach is over quota."'
postconf -e 'virtual_overquota_bounce = yes'
postconf -e 'proxy_read_maps = $local_recipient_maps $mydestination $virtual_alias_maps $virtual_alias_domains $virtual_mailbox_maps $virtual_mailbox_domains $relay_recipient_maps $relay_domains $canonical_maps $sender_canonical_maps $recipient_canonical_maps $relocated_maps $transport_maps $mynetworks $virtual_mailbox_limit_maps'

Afterwards we create the SSL certificate that is needed for TLS:

cd /etc/postfix
openssl req -new -outform PEM -out smtpd.cert -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout smtpd.key -keyform PEM -days 365 -x509

Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]: <-- Enter your Country Name (e.g., "DE").
State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]: <-- Enter your State or Province Name.
Locality Name (eg, city) []: <-- Enter your City.
Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]: <-- Enter your Organization Name (e.g., the name of your company).
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: <-- Enter your Organizational Unit Name (e.g. "IT Department").
Common Name (eg, YOUR name) []: <-- Enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name of the system (e.g. "server1.example.com").
Email Address []: <-- Enter your Email Address.

Then change the permissions of the smtpd.key:

chmod o= /etc/postfix/smtpd.key

6 Configure Saslauthd

First run

mkdir -p /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd

Then edit /etc/default/saslauthd. Set START to yes and change the line OPTIONS="-c -m /var/run/saslauthd" to OPTIONS="-c -m /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd -r":

vi /etc/default/saslauthd

#
# Settings for saslauthd daemon
# Please read /usr/share/doc/sasl2-bin/README.Debian for details.
#

# Should saslauthd run automatically on startup? (default: no)
START=yes

# Description of this saslauthd instance. Recommended.
# (suggestion: SASL Authentication Daemon)
DESC="SASL Authentication Daemon"

# Short name of this saslauthd instance. Strongly recommended.
# (suggestion: saslauthd)
NAME="saslauthd"

# Which authentication mechanisms should saslauthd use? (default: pam)
#
# Available options in this Debian package:
# getpwent  -- use the getpwent() library function
# kerberos5 -- use Kerberos 5
# pam       -- use PAM
# rimap     -- use a remote IMAP server
# shadow    -- use the local shadow password file
# sasldb    -- use the local sasldb database file
# ldap      -- use LDAP (configuration is in /etc/saslauthd.conf)
#
# Only one option may be used at a time. See the saslauthd man page
# for more information.
#
# Example: MECHANISMS="pam"
MECHANISMS="pam"

# Additional options for this mechanism. (default: none)
# See the saslauthd man page for information about mech-specific options.
MECH_OPTIONS=""

# How many saslauthd processes should we run? (default: 5)
# A value of 0 will fork a new process for each connection.
THREADS=5

# Other options (default: -c -m /var/run/saslauthd)
# Note: You MUST specify the -m option or saslauthd won't run!
#
# WARNING: DO NOT SPECIFY THE -d OPTION.
# The -d option will cause saslauthd to run in the foreground instead of as
# a daemon. This will PREVENT YOUR SYSTEM FROM BOOTING PROPERLY. If you wish
# to run saslauthd in debug mode, please run it by hand to be safe.
#
# See /usr/share/doc/sasl2-bin/README.Debian for Debian-specific information.
# See the saslauthd man page and the output of 'saslauthd -h' for general
# information about these options.
#
# Example for chroot Postfix users: "-c -m /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd"
# Example for non-chroot Postfix users: "-c -m /var/run/saslauthd"
#
# To know if your Postfix is running chroot, check /etc/postfix/master.cf.
# If it has the line "smtp inet n - y - - smtpd" or "smtp inet n - - - - smtpd"
# then your Postfix is running in a chroot.
# If it has the line "smtp inet n - n - - smtpd" then your Postfix is NOT
# running in a chroot.
#OPTIONS="-c -m /var/run/saslauthd"
OPTIONS="-c -m /var/spool/postfix/var/run/saslauthd -r"

Then create the file /etc/pam.d/smtp. It should contain only the following two lines (go sure to fill in your correct database details):

vi /etc/pam.d/smtp

auth    required   pam_mysql.so user=mail_admin passwd=mail_admin_password host=127.0.0.1 db=mail table=users usercolumn=email passwdcolumn=password crypt=1
account sufficient pam_mysql.so user=mail_admin passwd=mail_admin_password host=127.0.0.1 db=mail table=users usercolumn=email passwdcolumn=password crypt=1

Next create the file /etc/postfix/sasl/smtpd.conf. It should look like this:

vi /etc/postfix/sasl/smtpd.conf

pwcheck_method: saslauthd
mech_list: plain login
allow_plaintext: true
auxprop_plugin: sql
sql_engine: mysql
sql_hostnames: 127.0.0.1
sql_user: mail_admin
sql_passwd: mail_admin_password
sql_database: mail
sql_select: select password from users where email = '%u@%r'

Next add the postfix user to the sasl group (this makes sure that Postfix has the permission to access saslauthd):

adduser postfix sasl

Then restart Postfix and Saslauthd:

/etc/init.d/postfix restart
/etc/init.d/saslauthd restart

7 Configure Courier

Now we have to tell Courier that it should authenticate against our MySQL database. First, edit /etc/courier/authdaemonrc and change the value of authmodulelist so that it reads:

vi /etc/courier/authdaemonrc

[...]
authmodulelist="authmysql"
[...]

Then make a backup of /etc/courier/authmysqlrc and empty the old file:

cp /etc/courier/authmysqlrc /etc/courier/authmysqlrc_orig
cat /dev/null > /etc/courier/authmysqlrc

Then open /etc/courier/authmysqlrc and put the following lines into it:

vi /etc/courier/authmysqlrc

MYSQL_SERVER localhost
MYSQL_USERNAME mail_admin
MYSQL_PASSWORD mail_admin_password
MYSQL_PORT 0
MYSQL_DATABASE mail
MYSQL_USER_TABLE users
MYSQL_CRYPT_PWFIELD password
#MYSQL_CLEAR_PWFIELD password
MYSQL_UID_FIELD 5000
MYSQL_GID_FIELD 5000
MYSQL_LOGIN_FIELD email
MYSQL_HOME_FIELD "/home/vmail"
MYSQL_MAILDIR_FIELD CONCAT(SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',-1),'/',SUBSTRING_INDEX(email,'@',1),'/')
#MYSQL_NAME_FIELD
MYSQL_QUOTA_FIELD quota

During the installation, the SSL certificates for IMAP-SSL and POP3-SSL are created with the hostname localhost. To change this to the correct hostname (server1.example.com in this tutorial), delete the certificates...

cd /etc/courier
rm -f /etc/courier/imapd.pem
rm -f /etc/courier/pop3d.pem

... and modify the following two files; replace CN=localhost with CN=server1.example.com (you can also modify the other values, if necessary):

vi /etc/courier/imapd.cnf

[...]
CN=server1.example.com
[...]

vi /etc/courier/pop3d.cnf

[...]
CN=server1.example.com
[...]

Then recreate the certificates...

mkimapdcert
mkpop3dcert

... and restart Courier:

/etc/init.d/courier-authdaemon restart
/etc/init.d/courier-imap restart
/etc/init.d/courier-imap-ssl restart
/etc/init.d/courier-pop restart
/etc/init.d/courier-pop-ssl restart

By running

telnet localhost pop3

you can see if your POP3 server is working correctly. It should give back +OK Hello there. (Type quit to get back to the Linux shell.)

root@server1:/etc/courier# telnet localhost pop3
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost.localdomain.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK Hello there.
<-- quit
+OK Better luck next time.
Connection closed by foreign host.
root@server1:/etc/courier#

8 Modify /etc/aliases

Now we should open /etc/aliases. Make sure that postmaster points to root and root to your own username or your email address, e.g. like this:

vi /etc/aliases

[...]
postmaster: root
root: [email protected]
[...]

or like this (if administrator is your own username):

[...]
postmaster: root
root:   administrator
[...]

Whenever you modify /etc/aliases, you must run

newaliases

afterwards and restart Postfix:

/etc/init.d/postfix restart

9 Install amavisd-new, SpamAssassin, And ClamAV

To install amavisd-new, spamassassin and clamav, run the following command:

apt-get install amavisd-new spamassassin clamav clamav-daemon zoo unzip bzip2 libnet-ph-perl libnet-snpp-perl libnet-telnet-perl nomarch lzop pax

Afterwards we must configure amavisd-new. The configuration is split up in various files which reside in the /etc/amavis/conf.d directory. Take a look at each of them to become familiar with the configuration. Most settings are fine, however we must modify three files:

First we must enable ClamAV and SpamAssassin in /etc/amavis/conf.d/15-content_filter_mode by uncommenting the @bypass_virus_checks_maps and the @bypass_spam_checks_maps lines:

vi /etc/amavis/conf.d/15-content_filter_mode

The file should look like this:

use strict;

# You can modify this file to re-enable SPAM checking through spamassassin
# and to re-enable antivirus checking.

#
# Default antivirus checking mode
# Please note, that anti-virus checking is DISABLED by
# default.
# If You wish to enable it, please uncomment the following lines:


@bypass_virus_checks_maps = (
   \%bypass_virus_checks, \@bypass_virus_checks_acl, \$bypass_virus_checks_re);


#
# Default SPAM checking mode
# Please note, that anti-spam checking is DISABLED by
# default.
# If You wish to enable it, please uncomment the following lines:


@bypass_spam_checks_maps = (
   \%bypass_spam_checks, \@bypass_spam_checks_acl, \$bypass_spam_checks_re);

1;  # ensure a defined return

And then you should take a look at the spam settings and the actions for spam-/virus-mails in /etc/amavis/conf.d/20-debian_defaults. There's no need to change anything if the default settings are ok for you. The file contains many explanations so there's no need to explain the settings here:

vi /etc/amavis/conf.d/20-debian_defaults

[...]
$QUARANTINEDIR = "$MYHOME/virusmails";
$quarantine_subdir_levels = 1; # enable quarantine dir hashing

$log_recip_templ = undef;    # disable by-recipient level-0 log entries
$DO_SYSLOG = 1;              # log via syslogd (preferred)
$syslog_ident = 'amavis';    # syslog ident tag, prepended to all messages
$syslog_facility = 'mail';
$syslog_priority = 'debug';  # switch to info to drop debug output, etc

$enable_db = 1;              # enable use of BerkeleyDB/libdb (SNMP and nanny)
$enable_global_cache = 1;    # enable use of libdb-based cache if $enable_db=1

$inet_socket_port = 10024;   # default listening socket

$sa_spam_subject_tag = '***SPAM*** ';
$sa_tag_level_deflt  = 2.0;  # add spam info headers if at, or above that level
$sa_tag2_level_deflt = 6.31; # add 'spam detected' headers at that level
$sa_kill_level_deflt = 6.31; # triggers spam evasive actions
$sa_dsn_cutoff_level = 10;   # spam level beyond which a DSN is not sent
[...]
$final_virus_destiny      = D_DISCARD;  # (data not lost, see virus quarantine)
$final_banned_destiny     = D_BOUNCE;   # D_REJECT when front-end MTA
$final_spam_destiny       = D_BOUNCE;
$final_bad_header_destiny = D_PASS;     # False-positive prone (for spam)
[...]

Finally, edit /etc/amavis/conf.d/50-user and add the line $pax='pax'; in the middle:

vi /etc/amavis/conf.d/50-user

use strict;

#
# Place your configuration directives here.  They will override those in
# earlier files.
#
# See /usr/share/doc/amavisd-new/ for documentation and examples of
# the directives you can use in this file
#
$pax='pax';

#------------ Do not modify anything below this line -------------
1;  # ensure a defined return

Afterwards, run these commands to add the clamav user to the amavis group and to restart amavisd-new and ClamAV:

adduser clamav amavis
/etc/init.d/amavis restart
/etc/init.d/clamav-freshclam restart
/etc/init.d/clamav-daemon restart

Now we have to configure Postfix to pipe incoming email through amavisd-new:

postconf -e 'content_filter = amavis:[127.0.0.1]:10024'
postconf -e 'receive_override_options = no_address_mappings'

Afterwards append the following lines to /etc/postfix/master.cf:

vi /etc/postfix/master.cf

[...]
amavis unix - - - - 2 smtp
        -o smtp_data_done_timeout=1200
        -o smtp_send_xforward_command=yes

127.0.0.1:10025 inet n - - - - smtpd
        -o content_filter=
        -o local_recipient_maps=
        -o relay_recipient_maps=
        -o smtpd_restriction_classes=
        -o smtpd_client_restrictions=
        -o smtpd_helo_restrictions=
        -o smtpd_sender_restrictions=
        -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=permit_mynetworks,reject
        -o mynetworks=127.0.0.0/8
        -o strict_rfc821_envelopes=yes
        -o receive_override_options=no_unknown_recipient_checks,no_header_body_checks

Then restart Postfix:

/etc/init.d/postfix restart

Now run

netstat -tap

and you should see Postfix (master) listening on port 25 (smtp) and 10025, and amavisd-new on port 10024:

root@server1:/etc/courier# netstat -tap
Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 *:http                  *:*                     LISTEN      6134/apache2
tcp        0      0 *:ssh                   *:*                     LISTEN      610/sshd
tcp        0      0 *:smtp                  *:*                     LISTEN      23128/master
tcp        0      0 localhost.localdo:10024 *:*                     LISTEN      21937/amavisd-new (
tcp        0      0 localhost.localdo:10025 *:*                     LISTEN      23128/master
tcp        0      0 localhost.localdo:mysql *:*                     LISTEN      4308/mysqld
tcp        0     52 server1.example.com:ssh 192.168.0.206:57597     ESTABLISHED 976/0
tcp6       0      0 [::]:ssh                [::]:*                  LISTEN      610/sshd
tcp6       0      0 [::]:smtp               [::]:*                  LISTEN      23128/master
tcp6       0      0 [::]:imaps              [::]:*                  LISTEN      18191/couriertcpd
tcp6       0      0 [::]:pop3s              [::]:*                  LISTEN      18259/couriertcpd
tcp6       0      0 [::]:pop3               [::]:*                  LISTEN      18222/couriertcpd
tcp6       0      0 [::]:imap2              [::]:*                  LISTEN      18154/couriertcpd
root@server1:/etc/courier#

10 Install Razor, Pyzor And DCC And Configure SpamAssassin

Razor, Pyzor and DCC are spamfilters that use a collaborative filtering network. To install Razor and Pyzor, run

apt-get install razor pyzor

DCC isn't available in the Ubuntu 13.10 repositories, so we install it as follows:

cd /tmp
wget http://www.dcc-servers.net/dcc/source/dcc-dccproc.tar.Z 
tar xzvf dcc-dccproc.tar.Z
cd dcc-dccproc-1.3.1.154
./configure --with-uid=amavis
make
make install
chown -R amavis:amavis /var/dcc
ln -s /var/dcc/libexec/dccifd /usr/local/bin/dccifd

Now we have to tell SpamAssassin to use these three programs. Edit /etc/spamassassin/local.cf and add the following lines to it:

vi /etc/spamassassin/local.cf

[...]
#dcc
use_dcc 1
dcc_path /usr/local/bin/dccproc

#pyzor
use_pyzor 1
pyzor_path /usr/bin/pyzor

#razor
use_razor2 1
razor_config /etc/razor/razor-agent.conf

#bayes
use_bayes 1
use_bayes_rules 1
bayes_auto_learn 1

Then we must enable the DCC plugin in SpamAssassin. Open /etc/spamassassin/v310.pre and uncomment the loadplugin Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugin::DCC line:

vi /etc/spamassassin/v310.pre

[...]
# DCC - perform DCC message checks.
#
# DCC is disabled here because it is not open source.  See the DCC
# license for more details.
#
loadplugin Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugin::DCC
[...]

You can check your SpamAssassin configuration by executing:

spamassassin --lint

It shouldn't show any errors.

Restart amavisd-new afterwards:

/etc/init.d/amavis restart

Now we update our SpamAssassin rulesets as follows:

sa-update --no-gpg

We create a cron job so that the rulesets will be updated regularly. Run

crontab -e

to open the cron job editor. Create the following cron job:

23 4 */2 * * /usr/bin/sa-update --no-gpg &> /dev/null

This will update the rulesets every second day at 4.23h.

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