DKIM

Stands for “DomainKeys Identified Mail.” DKIM is an e mail authentication expertise that verifies a message was despatched from a reputable person of an e mail tackle. It is designed to stop e mail forgery or spoofing.

DKIM works by attaching a digital signature to the header of an e mail message. The header is generated by the outgoing mail server and is exclusive to the domain hosted on the server. The receiving mail server can examine the header in opposition to a public key saved within the sending server’s DNS file to substantiate the authenticity of the message.

Many common e mail providers like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Outlook use DKIM by default. Other e mail accounts, corresponding to these arrange on internet servers could require DKIM to be manually activated. For instance, cPanel – a well-liked Linux internet server utility – permits an administrator to activate DKIM within the Email → Authentication part of the cPanel interface. Once DKIM is enabled, it’s activated for all customers mechanically.

While DKIM supplies a easy option to confirm a message has been despatched from the corresponding domain, it isn’t a foolproof resolution. For instance, the receiving mail server should additionally assist DKIM or the header info shall be ignored. Additionally, messages with a legitimate signature might be forwarded or resent from one other e mail tackle. It can be necessary to notice that DKIM is designed to authenticate messages, not stop spam. While a legitimate DKIM header could imply a message is much less more likely to be spam, it has no relation to the content material of the message.

History

The DomainKeys Identified Mail specification was created in 2005 when Yahoo! and Cisco merged their respective DomainKeys and Identified Internet Mail right into a single resolution. It was printed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) the identical 12 months and has been in use ever since.

NOTE: DKIM is often used together with SPF (Server Policy Framework), although the 2 verification strategies are utterly separate.