DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) stands shoulder-to-shoulder with SPF as another crucial email authentication protocol. While SPF focuses on verifying the sender's IP address, DKIM utilizes a different approach – cryptography. This ensures the email truly originated from the claimed domain and wasn't spoofed by malicious actors.
Here's how DKIM achieves this added layer of security: When a DKIM-enabled email server sends a message, it attaches a digital signature to the email header. This signature is created using a special cryptographic key pair. The sender holds a private key, while a corresponding public key is published. This public key finds its home within a specific format (TXT record) stored in the domain's DNS (Domain Name System) records. This makes the public key readily available for receiving email servers.
Upon receiving an email, the receiving server retrieves the sender's public key from the DNS record. It then uses this public key to verify the digital signature attached to the email. If the signature verification is successful, it confirms that the email originated from a legitimate source authorized by the domain owner. This significantly reduces the risk of email spoofing and phishing attacks, where attackers attempt to impersonate legitimate senders to deceive recipients.
TAG | MEANING |
---|---|
v | This tag specifies the DKIM version being used. Currently, the most common value is "v=DKIM1". |
a | This tag identifies the cryptographic algorithm used to generate the digital signature. A common value is "rsa-sha256". |
d | This tag indicates the domain name used with the selector record (another tag) to locate the sender's public key in the DNS. |
s | This tag specifies the selector record name used to find the public key. It's essentially a subdomain created by the sender for DKIM purposes. |
c | This tag can specify additional canonicalization methods used when creating the signature. |
h | This tag can list the email header fields included in the signature calculation. |
t | This tag can specify the time the signature was created. |
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