PowerDMARC

How to fix “No DKIM record found” ?

Maitham Al Lawati
no dkim record found blog

no dkim record found blog

If you are on this page reading this blog, chances are that you have come across either one of the following prompts:

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.

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;

i=support@yourdomain.com; bh=wAsbKJhhfgqwOy8qkdk1MjM0NTY3ODkwMTI=;

b=aBecQ+7rHDjakhQs3DPjNJKSAAHHsgasZSv4i/Kp+sipUAHDJhaxhBGf+SxcmckhbsbHObMQsCNAMNBSHmnljHAGjaxk2V+baNSHKJBjhdjajdHHXASHSjlhcskOtc+sSHKASJKsbakbsjhhHJAJAHlsjdljka4I=+

 

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==

 

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:

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!

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