SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
A DNS record listing which servers may send email for your domain.
Receivers check the sending server against the SPF record of the envelope domain. Two rules break it silently: there must be exactly one SPF record, and evaluating it may take at most 10 DNS lookups, nested includes counted. Over 10 and SPF fails for all your mail.
Related terms
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): A signature on each message, checked against a public key in your DNS.
- DMARC: The policy that tells receivers what to do when mail fails SPF and DKIM, and where to report.
