mnm is not mail

The mnm project is building a legitimate replacement for email: a server (see below), a client, and a simple protocol between them.

Learn more at mnmnotmail.org.

Server status

11 December 2020 - v0.1 is released for Linux!

13 April 2019 - A private preview is now live! Contact the author if you'd like to try it.

19 August 2018 - After testing with mnm client, made a handful of fixes. Changed license to MPL.

25 September 2017 - A client application is in development.

3 August 2017 - A simulation of 1000 concurrent active clients delivers 1 million messages totaling 6.7GB in 46 minutes. It uses ~200MB RAM, <10MB disk, and minimal CPU time. Each client runs a 19-step cycle that does login, then post for two recipients (15x) or for a group of 100 (2x) every 1-30s, then logout and idle for 1-30s.

Quick start

1. Download binary or build from source
   a) Get mnm-tmtpd-linux-amd64-v0.1.0.tgz
   b) Extract with tar xzf mnm-tmtpd-linux-amd64-v0.1.0.tgz
   or
   a) go get github.com/networkimprov/mnm

2. Enable TCP+TLS with self-signed certificate
   a) cd mnm
   b) openssl ecparam -genkey -name secp384r1 -out server.key
   c) openssl req -new -x509 -sha256 -key server.key -out server.crt -days 3650
   d) cp mnm.conf mnm.config # edit to revise ntp.hosts and adjust listen.laddr with "host:port"

   Note: On a public Internet host, port 443 will see a steady trickle of probe requests (often with malicious intent) which pollutes the mnm log. Choose a port above 1024 to avoid this.

3. Run server
   a) ./mnm # default port 443 may require sudo ./mnm; logs to stdout & stderr
   b) Ctrl-C to stop
   or
   a) ./mnm >> logfile 2>&1 & # run in background, logs to end of logfile
   b) kill -s INT <background_pid> # send SIGINT signal, triggering graceful shutdown

4. Distribute the server address to users
   +  Use =address:port for a self-signed certificate, for example =192.168.1.2:3456
   +  Use +address:port for a CA-issued certificate, for example +mnm.example.com:443

Configuration

The file "mnm.config" contains a JSON object with these fields.

The ntp (network time protocol) object defines:
hosts - an array of NTP servers
retries - the number of times to retry each host

The listen object defines:
net & laddr - arguments to net.ListenConfig.Listen(nil, net, laddr)
certPath & keyPath - arguments to tls.LoadX509KeyPair(certPath, keyPath)

The name parameter defines the server's tmtprev response .name field.

The auth parameter defines where third party authentication is required:
0 - not supported
1 - required for registration
2 - required for registration and login (not yet implemented)

The authby array defines a set of objects describing OpenID Connect providers:
label - the name of the OIDC provider/application
login - an array giving the base URL, followed by name=value request parameters, for OIDC /authorize
token - an array giving the base URL, followed by name=value request parameters, for OIDC /token
std - an array of name=value request parameters to append to both login & token requests
keys - the URL for the public key needed to validate tokens provided by OIDC authentication
iss & aud - expected values for claims in the .id_token field of OIDC tokens

If the first authby object is empty, OpenID Connect authentication is optional. This is useful for testing.

Build & package

Assuming this repository has been obtained via git clone:

a) cd mnm
b) git stash # if required
c) git checkout <your_branch>
d) Edit kVersionDate in main.go
e) ./pkg.sh # make release downloads

Testing

Continuous test sequence with simulated clients
a) ./mnm 10 > /dev/null # may be 2-1000
b) ctrl-C to stop

The file test.json gives a sequence of requests and expected results, which runs prior to the continuous test. It includes invalid requests, which print messages to stderr.

What's here

• codestyle.txt: how to make Go source more clear
• qlib/: TMTP implementation
• test.json: qlib test data
• userdb.go: user & group records management
• userdb-test.go: userdb test procedure
• main.go: main(), network frontend
• mnm.conf: site-specific parameters; rename to mnm.config to enable TCP server
• mnm: the server executable
• After first run:
  userdb/: user & group data
  qstore/: queued messages awaiting delivery

License

Copyright 2020 Liam Breck
Published at https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/