Compute, Networking and Security in the real world
In a previous article here , I described how to setup an ACME server using Step-CA software. While writing that article I got tired fighting with some of the Step-CA nuances and asked myself if there was a better way. Not finding a better way to issue certificates using the ACME
These are some notes for my future self on how to get data out of the roundcube mail database. This assume sqlite3 database but the SQL should also work with MySQL or PostgreSQL databases as well. View schema sqlite3 rc_sqlite.db ".schema" cli for showing roundcube database
I have been running my own Certificate Authority (CA) for my systems for some time now. While running my CA is nothing like running a large commercial CA, running a personal CA is surprisingly easy. Background When I first got started with becoming my own CA, it was in the
Some quick notes for myself about using doveadm and managing mailboxes.
Software Used : OpenBSD 7.7 Overview Now that we have some services in our self hosted environment, we may want to allow access from outside our environment. The question is how do we allow this connectivity for ourselves (and anyone else we choose) but not allow the world at large?
Software Used: OpenBSD 7.7 (as VM) OpenSMTPD (part of OS) Dovecot 2.3.21.1 (from ports) RoundcubeMail 1.6.11 (from ports) twofactor_webauthn 1.3.0 Overview Email is a surprisingly vast and charged topic. It is one of the first services that someone/anyone can deploy
Software used: FreeBSD 14.2 (jail) OpenLDAP 2.6 (from ports) It has been said: "Three people can keep a secret, if two are dead." Fortunately, it doesn't need to come to that. Authentication As with many things in computing there needs to be a source
Software Used: FreeBSD 14.2 (jail) Introduction If you can't observe what is happening then you can't find and fix what is broken Setting up a logging server at this point may seem premature. But as we move forward, things will get more complicated and more
Software used: FreeBSD 14.2 (jail) Step CA 0.28.1 (from ports) Updated: 2026-02-14 Introduction If it isn't DNS... then it's certificates! Certificates are simple... but it's complicated! Certificates themselves are very simple... ignoring the all the crypto algorithms, hashes, etc. They are
Used Software: FreeBSD 14.2 (as jail) ISC Bind 9.2.0 (from ports) ISC DHCP 4.4 (from ports) Introduction It all begins with DNS... Building the Jail environment The DNS/DHCP server will be built using a FreeBSD jail. This is done for several reason. First, FreeBSD Jails
Software Used: OpenBSD 7.7 Introduction The firewall will separate the segments and provide protection for services that must cross the segment boundaries. To that end firewall will have several interfaces. To keep rules as manageable as possible we will treat all hosts behind each segment/interface the same. This
Software Used: FreeBSD 14.2 Sanoid/Syncoid 2.3.0 Introduction Before we can deploy any services we need two things. First a place to store those services and two a place to run those services from (i.e storage and compute). These two requirements do not need to run
As with all endeavors, success is not guaranteed. However, without a plan... failure is. In this series I hope to provide instruction on how to setup and self host an environment that can provide everything necessary to function in todays connected world. While I will be simplifying setups and configurations,
Finally some password sense! NIST has released some updates for password verifiers (SP 800-63B). While this isn't everyones cup of tea, it is nice when things like this come out to with discussions around security best practices.
Some quick notes on setting DPI for High Density Displays and X11.