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'''Currently being trialled by staff, not available to customers'''
'''Currently being trialled by staff, not available to customers'''

'''Important:''' As with SPF, if you use DKIM/DMARC then you will also want to make sure that all email that you send from your domain is sent through email servers that will sign
your messages - ie, all your outbound email should be sent out through smtp.aa.net.uk.


== What is DKIM? ==
== What is DKIM? ==

Revision as of 14:40, 13 December 2019


Currently being trialled by staff, not available to customers

Important: As with SPF, if you use DKIM/DMARC then you will also want to make sure that all email that you send from your domain is sent through email servers that will sign your messages - ie, all your outbound email should be sent out through smtp.aa.net.uk.

What is DKIM?

Also see SPF Record

DKIM is one of many methods which tries to protect email senders and recipients from spoofing/spam. A domain owner can add DNS records which publish a public key in a specially formatted TXT record. The email server they use for sending email (eg smtp.aa.net.uk) holds the private key and will sign messages and add this signature to the headers of the email.

Other mail servers which receive the email can then inspect the DNS record and the headers to check if it all matches up.

Optionally, further DNS records (DMARC) can be added which declare to these other email servers what should be done with messages that fail the DKIM test - eg, do noting, block or quarantine.

Even if messages are just signed, then this can help them not to be marked as spam by the recipient.

Signing by smtp.aa.net.uk

The A&A email relays, smtp.aa.net.uk, can optionally DKIM sign email that is sent through it.

We use a single public key, and aaisp as the Selector.

Here is an example of what DNS record to add:

Host/name: aaisp._domainkey
Type: TXT
Value: "v=DKIM1; t=y; k=rsa; " "p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAuloXhiatbx0YnrKgS+UL4tZrxcm1rdIxYqWDrs4aMrsFLM4IiSov0McwnFKFCXmo2zqh06OwcRwyMHe4pM+izxUnsMWCRs8BcaAuBhUM+Vbo6qwp5fWjtswaIgwVgJKwY610wg+qfuKM6o2qKc/Hy9Tj" "H5W8D64cSQ7jPCS5xu8CM4Ty/WG1Q7+cLKD1Y3stusqFEX0RFVkcSsvzHNggbDBlWAQCnGeG2+pOoAnfDqSvFvqASCOdjE9HbOZLcFnQRBDiPhegN3BYNWe6leC3SpjI67JNlhcOXAN2sT9m6bTpVFgQHLCnIY4L6TZx/mbpM0xF59kS9VPpYOtl6nQZCQIDAQAB"

Messages will then be signed by the AAISP key.

Testing is signing is working

There are various ways to test if signing is happening.

Send yourself an email If you send yourself an email, look at the header and you should see a DKIM-Signature: header which will include the signature along with s=aaisp which is the 'Selector we use'.

Send to a gmail account and check the DKIM report If you have access to a gmail account then send an email there, then in the little 3-dot menu in the email click 'Show Original'. You will then see the raw message but also information about SPF/DKIM/DMARC.

DMARC

Adding a DMARC DNS record is optional, but can be beneficial.

If you add DMARC records then you also need to make sure that all the email you send is being sent through smtp relays which will sign your messages. ie, all your email for your domain would want to be sent through smtp.net.uk

There are various online generators for creating a dmarc record, but the contents of the record will cover the following settings:

  • 'v' - The version - usually DMARC1
  • 'p' - What to happen if dmarc fails, eg none, quarantine, reject
  • 'rua' - an email address (or multiple comma separated addresses) of where you'd like to receive reports
  • 'ruf' - an email address (or multiple comma separated addresses) where you'd line to receive individual failure reports

The rua and ruf will be used by some of the bigger email providers - eg gmail, outlook, yahoo.

We'd suggest initially setting up reporting but no rejecting so that you can see how it's working out.

And example dmarc record which would send you reports but not tell other email severs to block if a message fails DKIM would look like this:

Host: _dmarc
Type: TXT
Value: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:YOU@YOURDOMAIN.COM; ruf=mailto:YOU@YOURDOMAIN.COM; fo=1

Once you are satisified that DKIM is working and all the email you send is being properly then you can change the record so that p is set to quarantine or reject.