How to fix “No DKIM record found” ?
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If you are on this page reading this blog, chances are that you have come across either one of the following prompts:
- No DKIM record found
- DKIM record is missing
- No DKIM record
- DKIM record not found
- No DKIM record published
- Unable to find DKIM record
DKIM is an industry-renowned email authentication standard that assigns a cryptographic signature to outgoing emails that is used by receiving MTAs to verify the sending source. When you receive a “No DKIM record found” message it simply implies that your domain is not configured with DKIM email authentication standards. Configuring DKIM for your domain can improve your domain’s security. Check out how protected your domain is against impersonation with our DKIM record checker.
What is DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM)?
Domainkeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is a standard employed by companies to protect email domains from spammers pretending to be genuine senders. This is achieved by cryptographic signatures which are verifiable by the recipient of the email and others. The sender generates a DomainKeys Identified Mail public/private key pair and attaches the public key as a DNS TXT record. The message is signed with the private key and authenticated using domain authentication information.
DKIM as an email authentication protocol allows the sender of an email to take responsibility for their message by curating the portion of the message that is actually from them and securing it with a cryptographic signature. It’s primary goal is to stop email address forgeries.
Why Do I Need to Configure DKIM?
You’ve probably been suggested that you need DKIM email authentication. But why do businesses really need it and what are the subsequent benefits involved in implementing the protocol? An enterprise is usually a large email exchanger for their organization with daily email blow and email marketing campaigns.
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is a great way to provide extra assurance for any emails your organization sends. It is one of the mechanisms specified in RFC 6376 for email validation, authentication, and delivery. Using private and public keys, DKIM allows a domain to digitally sign an email message after all other mail processing stages so it can be verified if the message has been modified by a third party, including transport providers and filtering services. DKIM helps you improve your email deliverability and protects your domain against impersonation attempts.
- Emails signed with DKIM are more likely to end up in the inbox rather than your recipient’s spam folder as it adds an extra layer of security and authenticity to your emails.
- DKIM can be easily configured for existing email service providers like Gmail, Sendgrid, MailChimp, etc. Learn how you can configure DKIM for them.
- Having your domain configured with DKIM helps ISPs build up a positive reputation for your email domain over time, reducing the chances of your legitimate emails failing delivery.
- DKIM also helps your legitimate emails pass authentication checks and get delivered to your recipients’ inboxes during email forwarding, where SPF inevitably fails.
Breaking Down the Syntax of a DKIM Record
Before the verification process, when you configure your domain with DKIM, your sending server signs each message as it is sent. When a message is sent, a hash from the content of the message headers is created and then your private key is used to sign the hash. This DKIM signature appears something like this:
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; s=s1; d=yourdomain.com;
h=From:Date:Subject:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:To:Message-ID;
[email protected]; bh=wAsbKJhhfgqwOy8qkdk1MjM0NTY3ODkwMTI=;
b=aBecQ+7rHDjakhQs3DPjNJKSAAHHsgasZSv4i/Kp+sipUAHDJhaxhBGf+SxcmckhbsbHObMQsCNAMNBSHmnljHAGjaxk2V+baNSHKJBjhdjajdHHXASHSjlhcskOtc+sSHKASJKsbakbsjhhHJAJAHlsjdljka4I=+
| v | version of DKIM |
| c | the canonical tag for header and body |
| s | DKIM selector |
| d | the signing domain |
| h | the message headers |
| i | identity of the signing domain |
| bh | body hash value |
| b | the cyptographic DKIM signature for the header and body |
This signature is added to the outgoing email headers by the sending server. The message is now ready for a recipient server to authenticate it and ensure that it hasn’t been altered.
A receiving email server begins to verify your email message by ensuring that the DKIM version meets the specifications, the sending domain and DKIM signature domain is a match and the header tag has the From header field included in it.
While authenticating your outbound email the receiving server uses the domain name and the DKIM selector to perform a DNS lookup and retrieve the public key from the sender’s DNS. The TXT resource record to be looked up can appear to be something like:
s1._domainkey.yourdomain.com
In the above example, s1= DKIM selector.
A generated DKIM record for a domain can look like this (this DNS TXT record is published in your domain’s DNS and contains the public key that is retrieved by receiving MTAs during DKIM verification):
v=DKIM1;p=QUFBQUIzTnphQzF5YzJFQUFBQURBUUFCQUFBQWdRRE1zN1pVUVVTbnFnU3hSRWVxMnM4cm4zZDhRV1JDd0VncDlQQ0NMUXIzQWsraWs3WWp6QzhSVDN4R29NeXdFWGQ3emxXaWRGS2pBWU93Q3l1Sy9va1FiZVBqcnVHMkQyRWdmYU9hQ1c0N3F1U2dlOCtxNTRYQVMyMEhFc1c0TVVXN1dKanhHTGlNRjN6WnkxNjJoZFc2RmRhaFFralpFTWtsY2J3enZENngxdz09IA==
| v | Specifies the version of DKIM being used |
| p | This mechanism specifies the public key that the receiving server tries to retrieve from the sending domain in order to verify DKIM |
Resolving the “No DKIM Record Found” Message
If you want to stop getting the annoying “No DKIM record found” prompt all you need to do is configure DKIM for your domain by publishing a DNS TXT record. You can use our free DKIM record generator to create an instant record with the correct syntax, to publish in your DNS.
All you need to do is:
- Type in your DKIM selector. Lean how to find DKIM selector easily for your domain
- Insert your domain name (e.g. yourdomain.com)
- Click of Generate DKIM record
- You will get your Private key generated (You must enter this key in your DKIM signer. It must be kept secret, as anyone with access to it can stamp tokens pretending to be you)
- You will get your generated DKIM record with your public key, that you need to publish in your domain’s DNS
I Have Resolved No DKIM Record Found: What Next?
DKIM alone cannot prevent your brand from impersonation attacks. For optimal protection against direct-domain spoofing, phishing attacks, and BEC, you need to configure SPF and DMARC for your domain. The authentication protocols in unison help check for domain alignment to ensure that the email is being sent from a legitimate source and helps specify to receiving MTAs how to respond to messages failing authentication. This mechanism ultimately protects your domain against forgery.
Hopefully this blog helped you resolve your problem and you never have to worry about the “No DKIM record found” message bothering you again. Sign up for a free email authentication trial to improve your email deliverability and email security today!
Cybersecurity Expert, CEO at PowerDMARC
Maitham is a tech entrepreneur, cybersecurity expert, CEO and Founder of PowerDMARC with 15+ years of industry experience. Maitham holds a Global MBA from the University of Manchester and various professional certifications including CISSP, CISM, CRISC, and ISC2 CCSP.
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