tls_private_key

Specify the path to the TLS private key file that corresponds to the tls_certificate.

The default, if unspecified, is to dynamically allocate a self-signed certificate.

Since: Version 2025.05.06-b29689af

The functionality described in this outlined box requires version 2025.05.06-b29689af of KumoMTA, or a more recent version.

---

The private key will be cached for 5 minutes, then re-evaluated, allowing for the privae key to be updated without restarting the service. In prior versions of KumoMTA you would need to restart kumod in order to pick up an updated private key.

kumo.start_esmtp_listener {
  -- ..
  tls_private_key = '/path/to/key.pem',
}

You may specify that the key be loaded from a HashiCorp Vault:

kumo.start_esmtp_listener {
  -- ..
  tls_private_key = {
    vault_mount = 'secret',
    vault_path = 'tls/mail.example.com.key',
    -- Optional: specify a custom key name (defaults to "key")
    -- vault_key = "private_key"

    -- Specify how to reach the vault; if you omit these,
    -- values will be read from $VAULT_ADDR and $VAULT_TOKEN

    -- vault_address = "http://127.0.0.1:8200"
    -- vault_token = "hvs.TOKENTOKENTOKEN"
  },
}

The key must be stored under the path specified. By default, it looks for a field named key in the vault secret. For example, you might populate it like this:

$ vault kv put -mount=secret tls/mail.example.com key=@mail.example.com.key

If you want to use a different field name, you can specify it with vault_key (Since: Dev Builds Only):

kumo.start_esmtp_listener {
  -- ..
  tls_private_key = {
    vault_mount = 'secret',
    vault_path = 'tls/mail.example.com.key',
    vault_key = 'private_key', -- Look for 'private_key' instead of 'key'
  },
}

And store it in vault like this:

$ vault kv put -mount=secret tls/mail.example.com private_key=@mail.example.com.key