Details
dovecot is an open source mail submission and transport server for Linux based systems.
Rationale:
Unless mail transport services are to be provided by this system, it is recommended that the service be disabled or deleted to reduce the potential attack surface.
Solution
Run one of the following commands to disable dovecot :
# systemctl –now disable dovecot
Additional Information:
Additional methods of disabling a service exist. Consult your distribution documentation for appropriate methods.
Several IMAP/POP3 servers exist and can use other service names. courier-imap and cyrus-imap are example services that provide a mail server. These and other services should also be audited.
Supportive Information
The following resource is also helpful.
This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: System and Information Integrity.This control applies to the following type of system Unix.