DMARC Record Wizard

Setting Up and Understanding DMARC Records

Why is the Record Wizard helpful?

The DMARC Record Wizard by dmarcian helps users create a DMARC record for their domain to gain insights into its usage and prevent abuse. The process involves several steps: entering the domain, choosing a policy, providing an address for aggregate reports, optionally providing a failure reporting address, choosing identifier alignment, optionally setting a subdomain policy, and optionally deciding the percentage of emails the DMARC policy should apply to. Each step guides the user through the choices with explanations, making it easier to customize the DMARC record to their needs. 

Step 1:

Enter the Domain to authenticate:

Step 2:

Select your policy posture:

When setting up a DMARC policy, you have options on how to handle emails that fail authentication checks. Starting with a "none" policy is recommended to observe the impact without affecting your email flow. This collects data on unaligned emails. You can then choose to either quarantine these emails for review or reject them outright, which stops the emails before they reach their intended recipients. This step is crucial in defining your domain's email security posture. 

Step 3:

Register your email address:

In the field presented in the image, you should enter the email address where you want to receive aggregate DMARC reports. These reports provide data on the emails that are being sent on behalf of your domain and will inform you about messages that pass or fail the DMARC checks. The address you enter should be one that is set up to receive and handle these types of reports, which often come in XML format. It’s typically an address dedicated to this purpose, like `dmarc-reports@yourdomain.com`. You can enter multiple addresses.

Step 4:

Provide a failure reporting address:

This step asks if you want to receive detailed reports for each email that fails the DMARC check, known as Forensic Reports. These are not necessary for DMARC deployment but can provide deeper insights into specific failures, which could indicate abuse of your domain. If you choose "Yes," you'll get these detailed reports; if "No," you'll only get aggregate data.

Step 5:

Choose Alignment Identifier:

Identifier Alignment in DMARC ensures that the domain in the From header aligns with the domains verified by DKIM and SPF. 

-Relaxed Alignment allows the DKIM and SPF domains to be different subdomains of the domain in the From header. It's less strict and reduces the likelihood of legitimate emails failing DMARC due to strict domain matching.

-Strict Alignment requires the domains to match exactly. This is more secure but can lead to legitimate emails failing if they use different organizational domains or subdomains.

Choosing between relaxed and strict depends on your desired balance between security and deliverability.

Step 6:

Choose Subdomain policy:

This optional step lets you set a different DMARC policy specifically for subdomains of your main domain. By default, the same policy set for the main domain applies to all its subdomains. Setting a "reject" policy for subdomains can add security if you don't send emails from them, helping prevent abuse. If you're unsure about email flows from subdomains, it's advisable to choose "No" and use aggregate data to make an informed decision later.

Step 7:

Policy Percentage:

This step allows you to specify the portion of your email traffic that the DMARC policy will affect. It's designed to facilitate a gradual rollout. By not setting this to 100% immediately, you can minimize disruptions to your legitimate email while monitoring the effects and reports. It gives you the flexibility to enforce the policy on a fraction of your emails and scale up as you become more confident in the DMARC setup. Then, the record can be created.

Using the DMARC Record Wizard to generate a DMARC record simplifies the process of creating the correct syntax for your DMARC policy. After generating the record with the wizard, you then need to enter this record into the DNS settings with your hosting provider. This step is crucial for implementing the DMARC policy, as it enables email servers to recognize and enforce your domain's email authentication policies. For more detailed guidance through each step, you can visit the [DMARC Record Wizard] (https://dmarcian.com/dmarc-rec...).