SES Catch-All Forwarder (Terraform + Python Lambda)

This deploys an Amazon SES inbound pipeline that forwards any email sent to *@<your-domain> to a single destination (e.g., Gmail).

What it creates

• Route53 hosted zone for your domain
• S3 bucket to store raw inbound emails
• SES domain identity + DKIM (sending/forwarding) with automatic DNS verification
• SES receipt rule set: S3 store then invoke Lambda
• Python 3.13 Lambda that forwards as a wrapped message/rfc822 (DMARC-safe)
• All DNS records (MX, TXT, CNAME) automatically configured in Route53

Prereqs

• AWS account with IAM creds configured: aws configure
• Terraform >= 1.6, AWS provider >= 5.40
• Choose an SES receiving region (e.g., us-east-1)
• Domain must use Route53 for DNS - This setup creates a Route53 hosted zone and manages all DNS records automatically

Quick start

1. Edit terraform.tfvars:

   domain_name      = "example.org"
   forward_to_email = "example@gmail.com"
   region           = "us-east-1"

2. Init and apply:

   terraform init
   terraform apply

3. Update your domain registrar to use Route53 nameservers:

   • Get nameservers from: terraform output nameservers
   • Log into your domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.)
   • Update your domain's nameservers to the Route53 nameservers shown in the output
   • DNS propagation typically takes 15 minutes to 48 hours

4. Verification happens automatically - Terraform waits for SES domain verification to complete (up to 5 minutes)

5. Test by emailing any address at your domain, e.g. abc123@example.org. It should arrive at your forward_to_email address.

Notes

• The Lambda forwards by sending a new email via SES with the original message attached as message/rfc822 and sets Reply-To to the original sender.
• Domain verification happens automatically - Terraform creates all DNS records and waits for SES verification to complete.
• To avoid purging archived mail, disable S3 lifecycle (see comments in main.tf).

Files

• main.tf, variables.tf, outputs.tf - Terraform stack
• lambda.py - Python 3.13 Lambda
• terraform.tfvars - your values (example provided)

Contributors

Simon Cornelius P. Umacob da46njrzf@mozmail.com