Module 4 · Lesson 10 of 26

Aliases, catch-alls, and ACLs

Part of Mailcow: Self-Hosted Mail Server Mastery — Domains, Mailboxes, Aliases & ACLs.

Aliases (Email → Configuration → Aliases):

  • sales@example.com → alice@example.com, bob@example.com (group alias)
  • @example.com → catch@example.com (catch-all — use sparingly, spam magnet)
  • Aliases can target external addresses; SPF/DMARC alignment will break unless you enable Rspamd's SRS rewriting (on by default in modern Mailcow).

Mailbox ACLs: Each mailbox can be granted permission to:

  • Spam-train / ham-train messages
  • Manage app passwords (for IMAP clients that don't speak OAuth)
  • Edit their own Sieve filters
  • Modify TLS policy
  • Use SMTP from external IPs

Strip permissions you don't want users to touch — this prevents accidental TLS downgrades that nuke deliverability.

🎯 Tip: for shared mailboxes (support@), create a real mailbox and grant other users Shared folder access via SOGo. Avoid forwarding-to-many aliases for inbound — replies break threading.

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Pulse · self-hosted sending

Own the infrastructure your pipeline depends on.

One install script on your own server. Pulse sets up the MTA, mailboxes, certificates and dashboard; you add domains and start sending.

# on a fresh Ubuntu server
$ cd pulse && sudo ./install.sh
→ docker compose up · kumomta · stalwart · caddy
→ dashboard ready on https://pulse.yourdomain.com
$

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