Learning to Analyze DMARC Reports for Optimum Security

1. Learning to Analyze DMARC Reports for Optimum Security If you think that just deploying DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) protocol is enough to secure your email communications, then unfortunately, you are wrong. Implementing email authentication protocols such as DMARC, DKIM, and SPF is only a half-done job. You need to be able to read and analyze the DMARC reports to fool-proof your email ecosystem. DMARC authentication works at its best only when you make the most out of the insights that a DMARC report provides. A domain owner gets to learn about their domain’s email activities in detail from these reports. They help you evaluate how email servers and service providers treat the emails that you are sending out. This blog post is all you need if you are willing to understand and analyze your DMARC reports closely by learning more about their types and key components. What is a DMARC report? It is an elaborate collection of comprehensive data that is generated and shared by recipient email servers to the domain owner. This report consists of all the details regarding the emails that are sent out from your domain. These reports are designed with the core purpose of providing insights into different aspects of your email system, such as email behavior, SPF/DKIM authentication results, mail deliverability, and so on. DMARC results heavily rely on two other email authentication protocols- SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). So, based on the policy actions that you, as a domain owner, have specified earlier, the DMARC report will highlight the actions taken by the receiving email servers. A DMARC report enables you to monitor any kind of spammy or suspicious activities in your email ecosystem, as well as helps you decode the malicious sources that are trying to impersonate your domain names. Based on these reports, you get to take a future course of action on the email authentication protocols and thereby safeguard your business email communications as well as your customers from any kind of potential cyber threat. Types of DMARC reports There are two types of DMARC reports. Each of them serves different purposes in evaluating email authentication and security. Here you go:

2. ●Aggregate reports Aggregate reports are the ones that give you a gist of email authentication results over a certain period of time (generally 24 hours). Email service providers such as Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft send these reports. Aggregate reports enable you to identify trends in email authentication failures. However, they serve just as an overview and do not provide insights into Personally Identifiable Information or PII. These reports are received in XML format, and hence, you will require specialized tools such as a DMARC report analyzer to conduct detailed analysis. ●Forensic reports Forensic reports or failure reports share highly detailed information about every email that fails the DMARC authentication check. You can consider forensic reports as more granular and in-depth in nature. Studying these forensic reports will give you crystal clear data on email headers, sender and recipient details, authentication failure reasons, and IP addresses of the sending servers. It may also contain the full email content and help you understand why this particular email hasn’t passed the authentication check. Forensic reports not only help you identify any kind of suspicious activities going on in your email setup but also help you track the instances of false positives. Components of a DMARC report In order to decode a DMARC report, you should be well-versed in all its components. Here they are: ●Volume This metric helps you track the volume of outgoing emails from a specific IP address within 24 hours of time period. ●Delivery status It helps you understand the disposition of your emails (delivered, rejected, or delivered to spam) based on how you had instructed the email recipient servers to handle the emails. ●IP/PTR source This is the legitimate IP address that is being used by your email server to send out emails. ●DMARC It gives you the ultimate DMARC result (pass or fail).

3. ●DKIM alignment This helps verify whether or not the DKIM signature used by the domain matches with the sending domain. ●DKIM authentication Its job is to verify whether or not the sent email has a valid, untampered DKIM signature and if that is coming from the authorized domain or a third-party domain. ●DKIM Here, you get to see the final DKIM result based on DKIM alignment and DKIM authentication results. ●SPF Here, you get to see the final SPF result after checking SPF authentication results and SPF alignment. ●SPF alignment It is to find out whether or not the domain that is found under SPF authentication matches the sending domain. ●SPF authentication This metric helps you check if the return-path domain is enlisted in the DNS TXT record. It can either be your own domain or a third-party domain. ●Reporter These are the receiving email servers that send the DMARC reports to you. ●Date It is the date on which the emails were sent out for which you are seeing the DMARC report. How to analyze DMARC reports? A DMARC report is available in the XML format. You may find this complicated, and hence, it is advisable to use a DMARC report analyzer to analyze the DMARC reports and use the data to safeguard your email systems. Here’s how to do that:

4. Step 1. Receive the DMARC reports The first step towards analyzing the DMARC reports requires you to collect the reports from the DMARC reporting service or the recipients’ email service providers. Step 2. Check the aggregate reports The next step requires you to closely check the total number of emails that failed the DKIM and/or SPF checks. You will also have to check if any malicious entity has been trying to send emails on behalf of you or your team members. Be extra careful to detect special patterns, such as a specific source that is failing DMARC authentication checks again and again. Step 3. Go through the failure reports Forensic reports or failure reports are sent out only when a specific email fails DMARC authentication. The email servers prepare these reports the moment an email fails the authentication check. As a domain owner, you’re expected to respond at the earliest so that you can limit the extent of potential damage through cyberattacks (phishing and spoofing). Step 4. Make necessary tweaks and adjustments as needed Here comes the most crucial and effective step. Now that you have checked all the DMARC reports carefully, you should focus on making minor and major adjustments (if needed) to your email authentication policy. It may involve altering your SPF or DKIM records, making your DMARC policy more strict or lenient, or taking other relevant actions to boost your email security system. Step 5. Keep monitoring the email communications Analyzing DMARC reports is not a one-time job. Since DMARC reports keep coming in on a regular basis, you’re expected to monitor them closely and keep tweaking your DMARC policy as needed. Doing this is mandatory to keep your emails secure and safe. Final notes DMARC reports can be a crucial tool for safeguarding your email communications as well as your customers from potential cyberattacks. Hope this guide helps you decode those intricate DMARC reports. If you want similar content pieces around important cybersecurity concepts to bolster your thought leadership, hit me up at mailto:daksh@turtlewords.com