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PUBLICATIONS

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.
Citation
Technical Note (NIST TN) - 1945
Report Number
1945
NIST Pub Series
Technical Note (NIST TN)
Pub Type
NIST Pubs

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

DMARC, DKIM, SPF, DNS, email, SMTP
Information technology, Cybersecurity and privacy and Networking

Citation

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 22, 2025)

Issues

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Created February 16, 2017, Updated November 10, 2018
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