How To Install maildrop on Kali Linux

In this tutorial we learn how to install maildrop on Kali Linux. maildrop is mail delivery agent with filtering abilities (set-GID=mail)

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install maildrop on Kali Linux.

What is maildrop

maildrop is:

maildrop is a mail delivery agent (MDA), a program which reads a mail message from standard input and then delivers the message to your mailbox.

maildrop can deliver mail both in mbox and maildir storing formats. It can read instructions from a file, directing it how to log deliveries, and how to filter incoming mail, for example to deliver mail to alternate mailboxes, or forward it somewhere else, or pipe it through external programs.

It performs all the same functions as procmail, but unlike procmail, maildrop uses a structured filtering language which is a bit easier on the eyes. Other differences from procmail include not skipping syntax errors in filter files (instead deferring the mails for later processing) and being more resource-efficient when processing mails (not loading large messages right into memory).

maildrop in this package sets its permission to “rwxr-sr-x” (set-GID) and is owned by “root:mail”.

maildrop also comes with the following additional programs:

  • reformail, an e-mail reformatting tool, which can detect duplicate messages, manipulate message headers, split mailboxes into individual messages, and generate autoreply messages
  • maildirmake, which creates maildirs, and maildir folders
  • deliverquota, which delivers mail to maildirs while taking account software-imposed quotas
  • reformime, a utility for reformatting MIME messages
  • makemime, which creates MIME-formatted messages of arbitrary complexity
  • lockmail, which creates dot-locks, file locks, and C-Client folder locks
  • mailbot, a MIME-aware autoresponder utility

There are three methods to install maildrop on Kali Linux. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install maildrop Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install maildrop using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install maildrop

Install maildrop Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install maildrop using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install maildrop

Install maildrop Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude on Kali Linux first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Kali Linux. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install maildrop using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install maildrop

How To Uninstall maildrop on Kali Linux

To uninstall only the maildrop package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove maildrop

Uninstall maildrop And Its Dependencies

To uninstall maildrop and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Kali Linux, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove maildrop

Remove maildrop Configurations and Data

To remove maildrop configuration and data from Kali Linux we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge maildrop

Remove maildrop configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove maildrop configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge maildrop

Dependencies

maildrop have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install maildrop package on Kali Linux using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.