Live Tutorial Builds an Internal Email Lab for Phishing Tests

Summary

The presenter builds an internal email lab with hMailServer, configures SMTP and email clients, verifies authenticated message delivery, and demonstrates administrator sender impersonation for future phishing exercises.

Key points

• The presenter sets up an internal email lab, placing the mail server on a domain controller and configuring DNS and email clients.
• The presenter notes that hMailServer is no longer supported or maintained, but chooses it for exploit practice in a hacking lab—not for a non-hacking setup.
• Test accounts and SMTP settings are configured; troubleshooting includes removing an IP-range ban that prevented a mail client from connecting.
• A command-line email test succeeds with authentication, and the presenter reports testing Active Directory authentication.
• Thunderbird is connected to the lab server; the attempt to configure Outlook is unsuccessful.
• The presenter demonstrates sending a test message with the sender impersonated as an administrator and plans further phishing scenarios in the lab.