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Email Authentication Mechanisms: DMARC, SPF and DKIM
Published
Author(s)
J. S. Nightingale
Abstract
In recent years the IETF has been making a range of efforts to secure the email infrastructure and its use. Infrastructure protection includes source authentication by RFC 7208 Sender Policy Framework (SPF), message integrity authentication by RFC 6376 Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), and domain owner feedback on the effectiveness of these methods by RFC 7489 Domain- based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC). The High Assurance Domains (HAD) secure email project at NIST has been supporting the development of these initiatives by developing and deploying test infrastructure. This report describes our cumulative experiences with a test system for DMARC and its related protocols.
Nightingale, J.
(2017),
Email Authentication Mechanisms: DMARC, SPF and DKIM, Technical Note (NIST TN), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.1945
(Accessed October 2, 2025)