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Linux Email Services: Configuring IMAP with Dovecot

Most customers enjoy using their own email client to check mail rather than a terminal. To that end, deploying a `dovecot` instance will help them check email and give you the security you need to sleep at night. This lab will help you practice setting up a `dovecot` instance to work with your `postfix` instance.

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Lab platform
Lab Info
Level
Beginner
Last updated
Sep 13, 2025
Duration
15m

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Table of Contents
  1. Challenge

    Install Dovecot
    1. First, you need to install dovecot
    yum install dovecot -y
    
    1. Now edit the required files:
    vim /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-auth.conf
        set up auth_mechanisms
    vim /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-mail.conf
        set up mail_location to match postfix's home_mailbox from /etc/postfix/main.cf
    vim /etc/dovecot/conf.d/10-master.conf
        uncomment the auth-userdb unix_listener and configure the Postfix smtp-auth unix_listener
    
    1. Create the test user:
    useradd test_user
    passwd test_user
    mkdir /home/test_user/Maildir
    chown test_user.test_user /home/test_user/Maildir/
    chmod -R 700 /home/test_user/Maildir/
    
    1. Now you can start dovecot:
    systemctl start dovecot
    
  2. Challenge

    Test your Dovecot Configuration
    1. First, connect to the dovecot IMAP server:
    telnet localhost 143
    
    1. You'll receive a response similar to:
    OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE STARTTLS AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=LOGIN] Dovecot ready.
    
    1. Log in as test_user:
    a login test_user 1234
    
    1. If things are set up correctly, you'll receive a response similar to:
    OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ SASL-IR LOGIN-REFERRALS ID ENABLE IDLE SORT SORT=DISPLAY THREAD=REFERENCES THREAD=REFS THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT MULTIAPPEND URL-PARTIAL CATENATE UNSELECT CHILDREN NAMESPACE UIDPLUS LIST-EXTENDED I18NLEVEL=1 CONDSTORE QRESYNC ESEARCH ESORT SEARCHES WITHIN CONTEXT=SEARCH LIST-STATUS BINARY MOVE SNIPPET=FUZZY SPECIAL-USE] Logged in
    

    Congratulations - you've configured dovecot!

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