Change The Default Shell #

/bin/sh is a symlink to /bin/dash, however we need /bin/bash, not /bin/dash. Therefore, we do this:

dpkg-reconfigure dash

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

If you don’t do this, the ISPConfig installation will fail.

Disable AppArmor #

service apparmor stop
update-rc.d -f apparmor remove 
apt-get remove apparmor apparmor-utils

Install Postfix, Dovecot, MariaDB, Rkhunter, And Binutils #

service sendmail stop; update-rc.d -f sendmail remove

apt-get -y install postfix postfix-mysql postfix-doc mariadb-client mariadb-server openssl getmail4 rkhunter binutils dovecot-imapd dovecot-pop3d dovecot-mysql dovecot-sieve sudo patch

General type of mail configuration: <-- Internet Site
System mail name: <-- server1.example.com

nano /etc/postfix/master.cf

Uncomment the submission and smtps sections as follows – add the line -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject to both sections and leave everything thereafter commented:

[...]
submission inet n       -       y       -       -       smtpd
  -o syslog_name=postfix/submission
  -o smtpd_tls_security_level=encrypt
  -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
  -o smtpd_tls_auth_only=yes
  -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o smtpd_reject_unlisted_recipient=no
#  -o smtpd_client_restrictions=$mua_client_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_helo_restrictions=$mua_helo_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_sender_restrictions=$mua_sender_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o milter_macro_daemon_name=ORIGINATING
smtps     inet  n       -       y       -       -       smtpd
  -o syslog_name=postfix/smtps
  -o smtpd_tls_wrappermode=yes
  -o smtpd_sasl_auth_enable=yes
  -o smtpd_client_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o smtpd_reject_unlisted_recipient=no
#  -o smtpd_client_restrictions=$mua_client_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_helo_restrictions=$mua_helo_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_sender_restrictions=$mua_sender_restrictions
#  -o smtpd_recipient_restrictions=permit_sasl_authenticated,reject
#  -o milter_macro_daemon_name=ORIGINATING
[...]

service postfix restart

nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.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

[...]

Now we set a root password in MariaDB. Run:

mysql_secure_installation

You will be asked these questions:

Enter current password for root (enter for none): <-- press enter
Set root password? [Y/n] <-- y
New password: <-- Enter the new MariaDB root password here
Re-enter new password: <-- Repeat the password
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] <-- y
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] <-- y
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] <-- y

Set the password authentication method in MariaDB to native so we can use PHPMyAdmin later to connect as root user:

echo "update mysql.user set plugin = 'mysql_native_password' where user='root';" | mysql -u root

Edit the file /etc/mysql/debian.cnf and set the MYSQL / MariaDB root password there twice in the rows that start with password.

nano /etc/mysql/debian.cnf

The MySQL root password that needs to be added is shown in red. In this example, the password is „howtoforge”. Replace the word „howtoforge” with the password that you have set for the MySQL root user with the mysql_secure_installation command.

# Automatically generated for Debian scripts. DO NOT TOUCH!
[client]
host = localhost
user = root
password = howtoforge
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
[mysql_upgrade]
host = localhost
user = root
password = howtoforge
socket = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
basedir = /usr

Open the file /etc/security/limits.conf with an editor:

nano /etc/security/limits.conf

and add these lines at the end of the file.

mysql soft nofile 65535
mysql hard nofile 65535

Next, create a new directory /etc/systemd/system/mysql.service.d/ with the mkdir command.

mkdir /etc/systemd/system/mysql.service.d/

and add a new file inside:

nano /etc/systemd/system/mysql.service.d/limits.conf

paste the following lines into that file:

[Service]
LimitNOFILE=infinity

Save the file and close the nano editor.

Then we reload systemd and restart MariaDB:

systemctl daemon-reload
service mariadb restart

Install Amavisd-New, SpamAssassin, And Clamav #

To install amavisd-new, SpamAssassin, and ClamAV, we run

apt-get -y install amavisd-new spamassassin clamav clamav-daemon unzip bzip2 arj nomarch lzop cabextract apt-listchanges libnet-ldap-perl libauthen-sasl-perl clamav-docs daemon libio-string-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libnet-ident-perl zip libnet-dns-perl postgrey

The ISPConfig 3 setup uses amavisd which loads the SpamAssassin filter library internally, so we can stop SpamAssassin to free up some RAM:

service spamassassin stop
update-rc.d -f spamassassin remove

To start ClamAV use:

freshclam
service clamav-daemon start

The following error can be ignored on the first run of freshclam.

ERROR: /var/log/clamav/freshclam.log is locked by another process
ERROR: Problem with internal logger (UpdateLogFile = /var/log/clamav/freshclam.log).

Install Apache, PHP, PhpMyAdmin, FCGI, SuExec, Pear #

apt-get -y install apache2 apache2-doc apache2-utils libapache2-mod-php php7.4 php7.4-common php7.4-gd php7.4-mysql php7.4-imap phpmyadmin php7.4-cli php7.4-cgi libapache2-mod-fcgid apache2-suexec-pristine php-pear libruby libapache2-mod-python php7.4-curl php7.4-intl php7.4-pspell php7.4-sqlite3 php7.4-tidy php7.4-xmlrpc php7.4-xsl memcached php-memcache php-imagick php7.4-zip php7.4-mbstring php-soap php7.4-soap php7.4-opcache php-apcu php7.4-fpm libapache2-reload-perl

a2enmod suexec rewrite ssl actions include cgi alias proxy_fcgi

Install Let’s Encrypt #

apt-get install certbot

Install PureFTPd And Quota #

apt-get -y install pure-ftpd-common pure-ftpd-mysql quota quotatool

Edit the file /etc/default/pure-ftpd-common…

nano /etc/default/pure-ftpd-common

… and make sure that the start mode is set to standalone and set VIRTUALCHROOT=true:

[...]
STANDALONE_OR_INETD=standalone
[...]
VIRTUALCHROOT=true
[...]

Now we configure PureFTPd to allow FTP and TLS sessions. FTP is a very insecure protocol because all passwords and all data are transferred in clear text. By using TLS, the whole communication can be encrypted, thus making FTP much more secure.

If you want to allow FTP and TLS sessions, run

echo 1 > /etc/pure-ftpd/conf/TLS

In order to use TLS, we must create an SSL certificate. I create it in /etc/ssl/private/, therefore I create that directory first:

mkdir -p /etc/ssl/private/

Afterwards, we can generate the SSL certificate as follows:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 7300 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem -out /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem

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.

Change the permissions of the SSL certificate:

chmod 600 /etc/ssl/private/pure-ftpd.pem

Then restart PureFTPd:

service pure-ftpd-mysql restart

Edit /etc/fstab. Mine looks like this (I added ,usrjquota=quota.user,grpjquota=quota.group,jqfmt=vfsv0 to the partition with the mount point /):

nano /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/mapper/server1--vg-root / ext4 errors=remount-ro,usrjquota=quota.user,grpjquota=quota.group,jqfmt=vfsv0 0 1
/dev/mapper/server1--vg-swap_1 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

To enable quota, run these commands:

mount -o remount /

quotacheck -avugm
quotaon -avug

Install Jailkit #

Jailkit is used to jailed shell users and cronjobs in ISPConfig. Install jailkit with apt:

apt-get -y install jailkit

15. Install Fail2ban And UFW #

This is optional but recommended because the ISPConfig monitor tries to show the log:

apt-get -y install fail2ban

To make fail2ban monitor PureFTPd and Dovecot, create the file /etc/fail2ban/jail.local:

nano /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

[pure-ftpd]
enabled  = true
port     = ftp
filter   = pure-ftpd
logpath  = /var/log/syslog
maxretry = 3

[dovecot]
enabled = true
filter = dovecot
action = iptables-multiport[name=dovecot-pop3imap, port="pop3,pop3s,imap,imaps", protocol=tcp]
logpath = /var/log/mail.log
maxretry = 5

[postfix]
enabled  = true
port     = smtp
filter   = postfix
logpath  = /var/log/mail.log
maxretry = 3

Restart fail2ban afterwards:

service fail2ban restart

To install the UFW firewall, run this apt command:

apt-get install ufw

Install ISPConfig 3.2 #

We will use the ISPConfig 3.2 stable build here.

cd /tmp 
wget -O ispconfig.tar.gz https://www.ispconfig.org/downloads/ISPConfig-3-stable.tar.gz
tar xfz ispconfig.tar.gz
cd ispconfig3*/install/

The next step is to run

php -q install.php

This will start the ISPConfig 3 installer. The installer will configure all services like Postfix, Dovecot, etc. for you.

# php -q install.php