With a minor tweak to. SPF Soft and the SPF record syntax, SPF-failed italy telegram data emails can be handled in two completely different ways! SPF can be configured to trigger either a error or a error when sender authentication fails. In this blog, we will discuss the difference between SPF , the syntax for configuring both errors, and their use cases. Let’s jump right in!
How does an SPF record work?
To implement SPF for email, you need to create and publish an SPF record on your domain’s DNS. A typical example of an SPF record is as follows:
v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all
In this SPF record, you are authorizing all email from the IP addresses listed in the Google SPF record. The failure mechanism is defined at the end of the record (~all), which is
Therefore, an SPF record defines the protocol version used, the authorized sending sources, and the invalidation mechanism. When you publish this record discover the features of microsoft 365 for your task management on the DNS, you ensure that only authorized senders can send email on behalf of your domain name. If an unauthorized source tries to impersonate you, SPF will fail according to the type of failure mechanism defined in the record.
The difference between SPF hard failure and soft failure
The following table explains the basic differences between SPF hard and soft fails.
Recipient Failure Handling for Hard and Soft Failures
In section 8.4 , the RFC defines the following solutions for handling SPF hard failure and SPF soft failure results:
1. SPF hard fail/fail
For a “Failed” or “Hard Failed” result, the recipient server may choose to reject the unauthorized email. In the case of an SMTP transaction, a 550 5.7.1 error code should be returned with an appropriate error description.
If the recipient’s server does not reject the email during the SMTP transaction, the RFC recommends that the recipient record the SPF results in the Received-SPF or Authentication-Results header.
2. SPF Soft Failure
As a more flexible strategy, Softfail indicates that the alist provider dministrative domain does suspect that the message is unauthorized, but does not want to reject it outright. In this case, the message will be delivered but with a warning that further review is required.
SPF Soft Fails vs. Hard Fails: What Do We Recommend?
In the case of SMTP email relay, you can consider SPF soft failure as a safer option than hard failure. Let’s take a look: