DMARC Report Received from Mailgun: What You Need to Know
January 31, 2025 | 3 min read
Understanding DMARC Reports from Mailgun
Mailgun, a popular email service provider for developers and businesses, offers powerful tools for sending bulk and transactional emails. To ensure that your emails sent through Mailgun are properly authenticated and secure, DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) reports play a crucial role. These reports provide insights into how Mailgun emails are handled by recipient servers, based on SPF and DKIM checks, helping you maintain your sender reputation and enhance email security.
Key Components of Mailgun DMARC Reports:
1. Source IP Address: Shows the IP address from which Mailgun sent your email. By tracking this, you can confirm that emails originate from authorized Mailgun IP addresses and not from malicious sources.
2. DKIM Alignment Results: Confirms whether the DKIM signature in the email matches the domain in the “From” header. Mailgun offers easy DKIM setup to sign outgoing emails and enhance deliverability.
3. SPF Alignment Results: Ensures the sending IP, typically one of Mailgun’s IPs, is authorized in your domain’s SPF record. Monitoring SPF alignment is crucial for ensuring email authentication and preventing unauthorized emails.
4. Disposition: This field tells you how recipient servers treated your emails—whether they were delivered, quarantined, or rejected—based on your DMARC policy settings.
5. Message Count: Displays the number of emails that met specific criteria from a particular IP, which is useful for tracking email campaigns or identifying suspicious activity.
Automating DMARC Parsing for Mailgun
Given the high volume of emails sent through Mailgun, parsing DMARC reports manually is inefficient and time-consuming. Automation tools like Skysnag help streamline this process by providing faster insights and alerts.
– Data Aggregation from Multiple Providers: Since you may be using multiple email service providers along with Mailgun, Skysnag consolidates DMARC reports from Mailgun and others into a single view, making management easier.
– Visualizing Critical Metrics: Tools like Skysnag transform raw DMARC XML data from Mailgun into intuitive dashboards that highlight key metrics such as DKIM/SPF pass rates, unauthorized email attempts, and top-sending IP addresses. This makes it easier to quickly assess email performance and security.
– Automated Incident Response: Skysnag offers real-time notifications and responses for failed DMARC checks. If emails sent through Mailgun fail SPF or DKIM alignment, administrators can be alerted to adjust configurations or block malicious IP addresses immediately.
– Forensic Reporting: DMARC reports often include forensic information, such as full email headers of failed messages. For Mailgun, this level of detail helps identify issues with email flow and provides insight into potential security breaches or spoofing attempts.
Ensuring Proper DMARC Alignment with Mailgun
For optimal DMARC protection, it is essential to ensure that the domains used in Mailgun’s DKIM and SPF align with the domain in the “From” header. Misalignments can cause emails to be quarantined or rejected, even if other checks pass. Proper alignment is key to maintaining a strong email reputation and ensuring deliverability.
Skysnag’s Custom Solutions for Mailgun:
– DKIM Key Management: Skysnag ensures that your Mailgun DKIM keys are properly aligned and up-to-date. If keys are misaligned or rotations are overdue, Skysnag will alert you to take immediate action, ensuring your emails continue to pass DKIM checks.
– SPF Flattening: Complex SPF records, especially when using multiple services like Mailgun, can result in DNS lookup limit issues. Skysnag automates SPF flattening, optimizing SPF records to prevent failures due to DNS resolution limits.
– Policy Recommendations: Based on analysis of your Mailgun DMARC reports, Skysnag can recommend adjustments to your DMARC policy, such as moving from “none” to stricter modes like “quarantine” or “reject” to better protect your domain from email spoofing and phishing attempts.
By automating DMARC report parsing and offering tailored remediation for Mailgun users, tools like Skysnag help ensure email security, optimize authentication settings, and improve deliverability across all your email campaigns.
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