DKIM provides email authentication to allow a receiving mail server to verify if the incoming mail is authentic from the sender's domain. DKIM adds a cryptographic signature to every outgoing email enabling the receiving server to verify the same and allow the email to be received.
In this case, the receiving email server was unable to match the DKIM signature which appears to be invalid, missing or outdated in the public DNS records of domain.com. Please visit DKIMvalidator.com and verify the same by carrying out the steps therein.
There are several possible causes:
The following conditions must be met:
If the above actions do not resolve the issue, please send us a valid DKIM check report of DKIMvalidator.com for further action.
Spammers often send out emails that claim to be from authentic email senders. These emails are mostly sent with the intent to make the recipients view the email, or sometimes to collect sensitive information (passwords, email addresses etc.) from the recipients under the pretext of being a legitimate sender. Two methods that are commonly used by spammers include email spoofing and backscattering.
Email spoofing is a cheating method used by spammers to make emails appear to be sent from a legitimate domain/ email address that does not belong to them. This is done by forging the email headers, to make it seem legit so that the recipients trust and open the emails.
Spammers follow this approach as it makes more people view the email since the sender appears to be authentic. But, sometimes, it may pose serious consequences if they try to retrieve sensitive information from the user. Spoofed emails can be detected and avoided by configuring SPF and DKIM. If DKIM is configured, the domain name identity associated with each message is validated.
If the DKIM validation fails, such emails are quarantined or rejected based on the conditions set by you when DKIM validation fails.
Spammers spoof a domain name and send emails using the tampered email address. If the recipient domain rejects the email, it will send a bounce message to the domain that was spoofed.
Consider a case where a spammer has spoofed your email address and sent spam emails to another domain. When these spam emails are sent to invalid email addresses, the recipient domain sends a bounce message to the spoofed domain. This bounce message, instead of being sent to the spammer, will be sent to the spoofed domain from which the user is claiming to send the email. The spoofed domain will also be blacklisted by the recipient domain. If DKIM is configured, the authenticity of your domain can be validated and your domain blacklisting can be avoided. If you're on the receiving end of these spam emails, DKIM can help detect the authenticity of the emails, and those emails that are not genuine will not be delivered to your mailbox.
Email spoofing and backscattering, two methods that are commonly used by spammers, can be prevented to a certain extent by configuring SPF and DKIM for your domain.
In the DKIM process, a public key is published as a TXT record by the domain's DNS Manager (registrar of the domain or DNS Provider). Every outgoing email includes a unique signature generated using the private key for that particular domain. The receiving email server uses this private-public key combination to validate the email source. If there is a validation failure, the recipient server may reject the email or classify it as Spam/ Forged email, based on the server behaviour.
Enabling and using DKIM for your domain ensures that valid emails sent using SMTP are not classified as Spam at the recipient end.
The selector is used to identify the public DKIM Key details of the Domain. The selector is an attribute of the DKIM Signature and is included in the DKIM header of the email. You can use multiple selectors for a single domain in cases where you need to provide Special Signatory Controls for different sets of users.
Once you have added a selector and verified the selector, you need to make it as default and enable it for the domain. Once enabled, all outgoing emails based on the domain will be signed by the default selector, unless the users have been associated with a different selector in the Users section.
TTL (Time To Live) is the time specified in your DNS for each change in your DNS to be effective. If you have a large TTL value (24 hrs/ 48 hrs), then the TXT/SPF records might take a while to get propagated. It may take up to 12 - 24 hours for DNS changes to take effect, based on the TTL set.
The way the SPF records need to be added often varies with different DNS Providers. Hence, it is recommended to check the help pages or instruction manuals of your registrar or reach out to the support team of your DNS provider, to add the respective SPF/ DKIM records.
Check if you have copied pasted the correct information from the Indichost Setup page. In the case of DKIM, you need to copy the entire key displayed and provide it as a value of the TXT Record. The TXT Record name should follow the suggested naming conventions
If you require assistance in configuring DKIM or troubleshooting related issues, consider consulting with us as your service provider for a customized solution.
