MajorWiki/05-troubleshooting/selinux-dovecot-vmail-context.md

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title	domain	category	tags	status	created	updated
SELinux: Fixing Dovecot Mail Spool Context (/var/vmail)	troubleshooting	general	selinux dovecot mail fedora vmail	published	2026-04-02	2026-04-02

SELinux: Fixing Dovecot Mail Spool Context (/var/vmail)

If Dovecot is generating SELinux AVC denials and mail delivery or retrieval is broken on a Fedora/RHEL system with SELinux enforcing, the /var/vmail directory tree likely has incorrect file contexts.

Symptoms

• Thousands of AVC denials in /var/log/audit/audit.log for Dovecot processes
• Denials reference var_t context on files under /var/vmail/
• Mail delivery may fail silently; IMAP folders may appear empty or inaccessible
• ausearch -m avc -ts recent shows denials like:

  type=AVC msg=audit(...): avc: denied { write } for pid=... comm="dovecot" name="..." scontext=system_u:system_r:dovecot_t:s0 tcontext=system_u:object_r:var_t:s0
  

Why It Happens

SELinux requires files to have the correct security context for the process that accesses them. When Postfix/Dovecot are installed on a fresh system and /var/vmail is created manually (or by the mail stack installer), the directory may inherit the default var_t context from /var/ rather than the mail-specific mail_spool_t context Dovecot expects.

The correct context for the entire /var/vmail tree is mail_spool_t — including the tmp/ subdirectories inside each Maildir folder.

[!warning] Do NOT apply dovecot_tmp_t to Maildir tmp/ directories dovecot_tmp_t is for Dovecot's own process-level temp files, not for Maildir tmp/ folders. Postfix's virtual delivery agent writes to tmp/ when delivering new mail. Applying dovecot_tmp_t will block Postfix from delivering any mail, silently deferring all messages with Permission denied.

Fix

1. Check Current Context

ls -Zd /var/vmail/
ls -Z /var/vmail/example.com/user/
ls -Zd /var/vmail/example.com/user/tmp/

If you see var_t instead of mail_spool_t, the contexts need to be set. If you see dovecot_tmp_t on tmp/, that needs to be corrected too.

2. Define the Correct File Context Rule

One rule covers everything — including tmp/:

sudo semanage fcontext -a -t mail_spool_t "/var/vmail(/.*)?"

If you previously added a dovecot_tmp_t rule for tmp/ directories, remove it:

# Check for an erroneous dovecot_tmp_t rule
sudo semanage fcontext -l | grep vmail

# If you see one like "/var/vmail(/.*)*/tmp(/.*)?" with dovecot_tmp_t, delete it:
sudo semanage fcontext -d "/var/vmail(/.*)*/tmp(/.*)?"

3. Apply the Labels

sudo restorecon -Rv /var/vmail

This relabels all existing files. On a mail server with many users and messages, this may take a moment and will print every relabeled path.

4. Verify

ls -Zd /var/vmail/
ls -Zd /var/vmail/example.com/user/tmp/

Both should show mail_spool_t:

system_u:object_r:mail_spool_t:s0 /var/vmail/
system_u:object_r:mail_spool_t:s0 /var/vmail/example.com/user/tmp/

5. Flush Deferred Mail

If mail was queued while the context was wrong, flush it:

postqueue -f
postqueue -p   # should be empty shortly

6. Check That Denials Stopped

ausearch -m avc -ts recent | grep dovecot

No output = no new denials.

Key Notes

• One rule is enough — "/var/vmail(/.*)?" with mail_spool_t covers every file and directory under /var/vmail, including all tmp/ subdirectories.
• semanage fcontext is persistent — the rules survive reboots and restorecon calls. You only need to run semanage once.
• restorecon applies current rules to existing files — run it after any semanage change and any time you manually create directories.
• New mail directories are labeled automatically — SELinux applies the registered semanage rules to any new files created under /var/vmail.
• var_t context is the default for /var/ — any directory created under /var/ without a specific semanage rule will inherit var_t. This is almost never correct for service data directories.

Related

• Linux Server Hardening Checklist
• Docker & Caddy Recovery After Reboot (Fedora + SELinux)