I test every message for SPF, aligned SPF, and aligned verified DKIM.
 With one exception mentioned below, I don't block on FAIL, but I do
collect data.

Most legitimate messages produce at least SPF, many messages have DKIM
signatures.  I receive very little forwarded mail.  So most messages pass
DMARC tests naturally.  Then I tailor my local policies to reflect my
message stream,

For example, I trust ConstantContact and SendGrid to present accurate
identification of their clients.   They get a local policy which says
everything they send counts as equivalent to DMARC PASS, whether signed or
not.   This approach solves the Girl Scout troop mass mailing problem that
John raised a long time ago.  Those types of filter rules add another 1% of
domains and 2% of messages to the PASS category.

Note that I trust SendGrid identities, not their clients.   Any new domain
arriving from SendGrid goes to Quarantine until I flag it as allowed or
blocked.

We have very little legitimate traffic from EDU domains, so when I saw a
pattern of EDU impersonators, I added a rule to require PASS for *.EDU.

After applying these edits, I have a bunch of stuff that is still FAIL.
 It has a high percentage of spam or all types.   Periodically I do a log
review and identify some domains and servers that need to be blocked, as
well as some domains that need a special authentication rule so that I will
not need to investigate the same identity issue again.

I cannot imagine why I would give this up to only evaluate the domains that
have given me permission via a DMARC policy.  I think documenting this
approach would help a lot of other evaluators and software developers.

I get angry at products that think DMARC is a checkbox that you turn on or
off -- just follow the RFC and block the FAILS.   It doesn't work in
reality, but it allows them to say that the product does DMARC.   I assume
a lot of ransomware attacks could be prevented if the product vendors
understood the DMARC potential.

Doug


On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 3:38 PM Barry Leiba <[email protected]> wrote:

> Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean by "testing every message",
> so let me ask it this way:
>
> - A message says it's from [email protected]
> - If you can authenticate that through DKIM or SPF, you have an
> authenticated message from gloob.example.com.  What do you do next,
> and how does that relate to what DMARC specifies?
> - If you can NOT authenticate that through DKIM nor SPF, DMARC says
> you should look for a DMARC policy for gloob.example.com.  I presume
> you look for one, yes?
> - If you find a policy, DMARC would have you follow it.  Do you?
> - If you do not find a policy, we're now outside the scope of current
> DMARC.  What do you do now?
>
> Maybe if we're misunderstanding this and you clarify it, some of us
> might agree with you, so let's please try.
>
> Barry
>
> On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 3:27 PM Douglas Foster
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > Alas, there is no convincing this group, but the missed opportunity is
> so great:.   By testing every message, I learn that 81% of domains and 93%
> of messages are able to authenticate using DMARC rules.   (Statistics taken
> after sender reputation blocks have excluded the known offenders.)
>  Compare that to the 5% of domains that have any DMARC policy, and the tiny
> subset of those that are enforceable.
> >
> > DF
> >
> > On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 1:25 PM Todd Herr <todd.herr=
> [email protected]> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 1:13 PM Douglas Foster <
> [email protected]> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Michael, you ducked the question.
> >>>
> >>> If a domain owner has a right to not participate in DMARC, why are we
> removing that right with PSD policies?
> >>
> >>
> >> I said in an earlier message in this thread that I did not understand
> the tree walk to mean that PSD policies will rule if the org domain doesn't
> publish one. Here's what I wrote:
> >>
> >> If the intent of the tree walk is, at least in part, to allow for
> publishing of policy records at the PSD level and for those records to be
> inherited by existing subdomains (e.g., _dmarc.tld is inherited by
> domain.tld if domain.tld does not publish its own policy record) then I
> have badly misunderstood the tree walk. If that's not the intent, then the
> next rev of DMARCbis needs to make that more clear.
> >>
> >>
> >> One of us is wrong in our understanding of the point of the tree walk,
> and it very well could be me, but I think we need to get consensus here on
> this point.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Either participation is optional or it is not.    Which is it?
> >>>
> >>> This right to not participate is based on an assumption that DMARC
> will be used to block legitimate traffic.   That fear is only justified
> because we have been unwilling to document how DMARC should be used to
> ensure appropriate dispositions.    Failure to talk about failure
> management has created the problem and we seem determined to perpetuate it
> (even though failure management, as applied to mailing lists, was part of
> our charter.)
> >>>
> >>
> >> I submit that DMARCbis does say how DMARC should be used to ensure
> appropriate dispositions, in the Introduction section:
> >>
> >>    A DMARC pass indicates only that the RFC5322.From domain has been
> >>    authenticated for that message.  Authentication does not carry an
> >>    explicit or implicit value assertion about that message or about the
> >>    Domain Owner.  Furthermore, a mail-receiving organization that
> >>    performs DMARC verification can choose to honor the Domain Owner's
> >>    requested message handling for authentication failures, but it is
> >>    under no obligation to do so; it might choose different actions
> >>    entirely.
> >>
> >>    For a mail-receiving organization supporting DMARC, a message that
> >>    passes verification is part of a message stream that is reliably
> >>    associated with the RFC5322.From field Domain Owner.  Therefore,
> >>    reputation assessment of that stream by the mail-receiving
> >>    organization is not encumbered by accounting for unauthorized use of
> >>    that domain in the RFC5322.From field.  A message that fails this
> >>    verification is not necessarily associated with the Domain Owner's
> domain and its reputation
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >> Todd Herr | Technical Director, Standards and Ecosystem
> >> e: [email protected]
> >> m: 703.220.4153
> >>
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