Setup parsedmarc in Ubuntu

Step 1: Install Maxmind

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maxmind/ppa 
sudo apt update 
sudo apt install -y geoipupdate

• Register in MaxMind and generate License Key

sudo geoipupdate

• Check the version of geoipupdate that is installed

sudo geoipupdate -v

Step 2: Prerequisite

sudo apt-get install -y python3-pip python3-virtualenv python3-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev

Step 3: Create system user

sudo mkdir /opt 
sudo useradd parsedmarc -r -s /bin/false -m -b /opt

Step 4: Install parsedmarc in a virtual directory

sudo -u parsedmarc virtualenv /opt/parsedmarc/venv
source /opt/parsedmarc/venv/bin/activate
sudo -u parsedmarc /opt/parsedmarc/venv/bin/pip install -U parsedmarc

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Note: Ignore the installation error thrown for having incompatible version of urllib.

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Step 5: Configure parsedmarc.ini file

[general]
save_aggregate = True
save_forensic = True

[msgraph]
auth_method = ClientSecret
client_id =
client_secret =
tenant_id = 
mailbox = [email protected]

[mailbox]
watch = True
delete = False

[elasticsearch]
hosts = 127.0.0.1:9200
ssl = True

Note: [elasticsearch] configuration will change at later stage of this documentation.

• Protect parsedmarc configuration file

sudo chown root:parsedmarc /etc/parsedmarc.ini
sudo chmod u=rw,g=r,o= /etc/parsedmarc.ini

Step 6: Configure parsedmarc as service

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/parsedmarc.service

[Unit]
Description=parsedmarc mailbox watcher
Documentation=https://domainaware.github.io/parsedmarc/
Wants=network-online.target
After=network.target network-online.target elasticsearch.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/parsedmarc -c /etc/parsedmarc.ini
User=parsedmarc
Group=parsedmarc
Restart=always
RestartSec=5m

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Enable parsedmarc service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable parsedmarc.service
sudo service parsedmarc restart

Step 7: Install Elasticsearch and Kibana

sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https
wget -qO - https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/elasticsearch-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/elasticsearch-keyring.gpg] https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/8.x/apt stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-8.x.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y elasticsearch kibana

• Enable and start services

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable elasticsearch.service
sudo systemctl enable kibana.service
sudo service elasticsearch start
sudo service kibana start

Step 8: Configure Elasticsearch

sudo vim /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml

# Enable security features
xpack.security.enabled: true
xpack.security.enrollment.enabled: true
# Enable encryption for HTTP API client connections, such as Kibana, Logstash, and Agents
xpack.security.http.ssl:
  enabled: true
  keystore.path: certs/http.p12
# Enable encryption and mutual authentication between cluster nodes
xpack.security.transport.ssl:
  enabled: true
  verification_mode: certificate
  keystore.path: certs/transport.p12
  truststore.path: certs/transport.p12

• Set authentication in elasticsearch

cd /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin
sudo ./elasticsearch-users useradd <username> -p <password> -r superuser

echo "y" | sudo ./elasticsearch-reset-password -u elastic
echo "y" | sudo ./elasticsearch-reset-password -u kibana
echo "y" | sudo ./elasticsearch-reset-password -u kibana_system
echo "y" | sudo ./elasticsearch-reset-password -u apm_system

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Troubleshoot: If parsedmarc service (sudo service parsedmarc status) does not start, look at error log using

journalctl -u parsedmarc -r

Solution: To fix above error, update /etc/parsedmarc.ini file with the above credentials to connect to elasticsearch. (Do not use special characters in the password. Otherwise, refer documentation to incorporate special characters in the password)

[elasticsearch]
hosts = https://username:[email protected]:9200
ssl = True

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Step 9: Configure Kibana

• Create self-signed certificate

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout kibana.key -out kibana.crt
sudo mv kibana.* /etc/kibana
sudo chmod 660 /etc/kibana/kibana.key

• Add the following configuration

sudo vim /etc/kibana/kibana.yml

server.host: "SERVER_IP"
server.publicBaseUrl: "https://SERVER_IP"
server.ssl.enabled: true
server.ssl.certificate: /etc/kibana/kibana.crt
server.ssl.key: /etc/kibana/kibana.key

Note: Do not configure Elastic Search in the kibana.yml file. We shall perform at later stage.

• Restart Kibana service

sudo systemctl restart kibana

• Generate token to connect Kibana with Elasticsearch

sudo /usr/share/elasticsearch/bin/elasticsearch-create-enrollment-token -s kibana

• Access Kibana service https://<IP>:5601

• Enroll Kibana in Elasticsearch

Then access to your web server at https://SERVER_IP:5601, accept the self-signed certificate and paste the token in the “Enrollment token” field.

• Copy verification code from Kibana server

sudo /usr/share/kibana/bin/kibana-verification-code

• Use kibana_system to authenticate with elastic search. kibana_system has certain inbuilt privielges to connect with Elastic search, so do not use any other user account.

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Troubleshooting: Kibana service is running however port 5601 is not accessible

Solution:

sudo chown kibana:kibana /etc/kibana/kibana.key
sudo chown kibana:kibana /etc/kibana/kibana.crt
sudo service kibana restart

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