DKIM Explained

DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail and is used for the authentication of an email that’s being sent. Like SPF, DKIM is an open standard for email authentication that is used for DMARC alignment. A DKIM record exists in the DNS, but it is a bit more complicated than SPF. DKIM’s advantage is that it can survive forwarding, which makes it superior to SPF and a foundation for securing your email.

Starting in 2004 from merging two similar efforts, “enhanced DomainKeys” from Yahoo and “Identified Internet Mail” from Cisco and has since been widely adopted for email authentication.

What is a DKIM Record?

A domain owner adds a DKIM record, which is a modified TXT record, to the DNS records on the sending domain. This TXT record will contain a public key that’s used by receiving mail servers to verify a message’s signature. The key is often provided to you by the organization that is sending your email, for example SendGrid, Postmark, or Google Apps.

Read about how to create and add a DKIM record

What is a DKIM Signature?

DKIM gives emails a signature header that is added to the email and secured with encryption. Each DKIM signature contains all the information needed for an email server to verify that the signature is real, and it is encrypted by a pair of DKIM keys. The originating email server has what is called the “private DKIM key,” which can be verified by the receiving mail server or ISP with the other half of the keypair, called the “public DKIM key.”

These signatures travel with the emails and are verified along the way by the email servers that move the emails toward their final destination.

How does DKIM work?

When an inbound mail server receives a message, it will detect the DKIM signature and look up the sender’s public DKIM key in DNS. The variable or DKIM selector provided in the DKIM signature is used to determine where to look for this key. If the key is found, it can be used to decrypt the DKIM signature. This is then compared to the values retrieved from the received mail. If they match, the DKIM is valid.

Read about DKIM Selectors and how to discover which ones your domain may be currently using.

Why use DKIM for Email?

Implementing DKIM for email provides major benefits:

Protection of message integrity. The content of the email can be verified that it hasn’t been changed while being sent.

Increases domain reputation and email deliverability.

One of the foundational methods of email authentication for DMARC.

How do I know if DKIM is working?

Test your domain’s DKIM settings – Our DKIM Inspector is a free diagnostic tool that check if the public part of your DKIM signature—using the selector—has been implemented correctly in the DNS of your domain. Our free DKIM Validator can help you verify that your DKIM record is properly formatted. 

What happens when DKIM fails?

When DKIM alignment fails—or when the d= value in the Header From does not match the d= value in the DKIM signature—it can negatively impact deliverability as mailbox providers may send the message to the spam folder or block it entirely.

It is important to examine all messages that have failed to identify the sources as valid or as malicious. If you recognize a source as legitimate, you can investigate and set up DKIM correctly. If a source is not recognized, make sure to research it because this could indicate an attempt to send malicious emails on behalf of your domain.

Why DKIM-Only Isn’t Safe Enough

DKIM on its own isn’t a reliable way of authenticating the identity of the email sender and does nothing to prevent the spoofing of the domain visible in the header of the email. DMARC solves the problem by guaranteeing that the domain the end user sees is the same as the domain that is validated by DKIM and SPF. Learn more about DMARC alignment.

Furthermore, the addition of DMARC provides email received instructions on what to do with emails which do not match these checks via DMARC policy enforcement.

Visit our DKIM Knowledge Base to learn more about DKIM.