{"id":30725,"date":"2022-10-27T13:40:25","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T13:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/easydmarc.com\/blog\/?p=30725"},"modified":"2025-07-30T14:26:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T14:26:57","slug":"email-authentication-how-to-authenticate-your-email-with-dmarc-dkim-and-spf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/easydmarc.com\/blog\/email-authentication-how-to-authenticate-your-email-with-dmarc-dkim-and-spf\/","title":{"rendered":"Email Authentication: How to Authenticate Your Email with DMARC, DKIM, and SPF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Email is widely used by every organization to communicate with employees, potential customers, and business partners. Since its inception, email communication has always had security issues, and sadly, simple message encryption between email servers isn\u2019t enough to keep the bad guys out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cybercriminals are getting more dangerous, and email is one of the most popular attack vectors. Phishing scams, <\/span>spoofing<\/span><\/a>, and spamming are a few of the many cyberattacks where email is the main entry point. Hackers trick their victims by forging messages that appear to come from legitimate sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

For that reason, most organizations follow stringent email security practices to mitigate these risks. One of the best approaches is to authenticate your email messages properly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When we talk about email authentication, we\u2019re talking about SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, which help to validate the authenticity of an email. Aside from safeguarding your domain from cyber actors, these protocols help to improve your deliverability rates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This article discusses how you can authenticate your email with DMARC, DKIM, and SPF.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Comes Before DMARC?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Even though <\/span>DMARC<\/span> is at the top layer of your email security protocol, it can\u2019t stand on its own. Before implementing DMARC, you must first deploy SPF and DKIM<\/a>, the two primary authentication protocols. SPF and DKIM use different approaches to validate that an email message comes from a legitimate source.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The DMARC email authentication protocol was designed to complement and enhance SPF and DKIM, reinforcing their strengths while also addressing their shortcomings. Now that we\u2019ve given you a quick overview of these valuable email standards let\u2019s discuss how they work for email authentication.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How SPF Contributes to Email Authentication?<\/b><\/h3>\n

SPF, or Sender Policy Framework, is an email authentication protocol that allows a domain owner to list all the IP addresses authorized to send messages on their behalf. When an email is sent, the receiving server checks whether the associated domain has an SPF record and acts accordingly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If the sender\u2019s IP address isn\u2019t listed in the SPF record, the email fails SPF authentication and is either rejected or sent to the spam folder. This means scammers, spammers, and fraudsters can\u2019t spoof your company\u2019s domain for nefarious purposes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Implementing SPF also signals to email service providers that you\u2019re serious about email security and that your domain is legitimate, which can <\/span>improve deliverability rates<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, SPF has a few limitations, which cause some security concerns. Emails automatically fail authentication when forwarded by someone else since those IP addresses aren\u2019t listed in the SPF record.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201810 DNS lookup\u2019 error is also a common issue, but our <\/span>EasySPF tool<\/span><\/a> can help. Perhaps more importantly, SPF doesn\u2019t protect a domain from hackers that can spoof the visible \u201cfrom:\u201d address or display name.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What Does DKIM Do for Email Authentication?<\/b><\/h3>\n

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an email authentication protocol that uses public cryptography to digitally sign every message so that the receiving mail server can verify the sender and the authenticity of the email. The standard uses cryptographic authentication to validate a domain associated with a message.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DKIM provides email authentication using an encrypted key pair. One key is private, used to add a digital DKIM signature to each email. The other key is public, used by receiving mail servers to confirm the authenticity and source of an email, and to identify whether it was modified during transit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though DKIM offers a way for mail receivers to verify a sender and validate a message, it doesn\u2019t stop bad actors from using a reputable domain and DKIM signing to send malicious emails. Moreover, DKIM only considers some (not all) parts of a message during verification so cyberattackers can add malware-loaded headers that bypass DKIM authentication.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly, like SPF, DKIM doesn’t allow domain owners to instruct receiving servers on handling failed authentication messages. (Use our free DKIM Validator<\/a> tool).
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How Do SPF and DKIM Come Together in DMARC?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Before we answer the above question, let\u2019s answer this: <\/span>How does DMARC work?<\/span> DMARC is an anti-spoofing authentication protocol that leverages DKIM and SPF to strengthen your domain’s email security. You must publish these three email protocols as TXT records in your DNS settings. For DKIM, you need an additional configuration in the email gateway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s a rather technical process that can\u2019t be rushed or you\u2019ll risk authentication errors and legitimate emails being rejected. For many, <\/span>SPF is the first step toward DMARC compliance<\/span><\/a> followed by DKIM, both requiring proper configuration, authentication, and alignment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a rundown of how <\/span>email authentication<\/span><\/a> works once you have DMARC compliance through proper DMARC, SPF, and DKIM deployment. When you send an email to a recipient, the receiving email server performs different queries in the DNS as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n