Setting up the DMARC filter in Spamassassin

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is an email authentication protocol. It is designed to give email domain owners the ability to protect their domain from unauthorized use, commonly known as email spoofing. The purpose and primary outcome of implementing DMARC is to protect a domain from being used in business email compromise attacks, phishing emails, email scams and other cyber threat activities.

• Thanks to Iulian for the hint. This is a link to his page
• Take a look here for further DMARC solutions for qmail
• MXtoolbox: verifying your DMARC record
• RFC 4789 Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC)
• Spamassassin's SPF rules
• Spamassassin's DKIM rules
• MXtoolbox: DMARC report analyzer

Changelog

• Jan 17, 2026
  - added an how to for dmarc-srg (DMARC reports analyzer)

Configuration

You can use Spamassassin to apply a DMARC filter by means of the AskDNS plugin. Just add the following to 80-dmarc.cf:

cat > /etc/mail/spamassassin/80-dmarc.cf << EOF
# DMARC
ifplugin Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugin::AskDNS
askdns __DMARC_POLICY_NONE   _dmarc._AUTHORDOMAIN_ TXT /^v=DMARC1;.*\bp=none;/
askdns __DMARC_POLICY_QUAR   _dmarc._AUTHORDOMAIN_ TXT /^v=DMARC1;.*\bp=quarantine;/
askdns __DMARC_POLICY_REJECT _dmarc._AUTHORDOMAIN_ TXT /^v=DMARC1;.*\bp=reject;/

meta DMARC_REJECT !(DKIM_VALID || SPF_PASS || SPF_HELO_PASS) && __DMARC_POLICY_REJECT
score DMARC_REJECT 5
meta DMARC_QUAR   !(DKIM_VALID || SPF_PASS || SPF_HELO_PASS) && __DMARC_POLICY_QUAR
score DMARC_QUAR 2.5
meta DMARC_NONE   !(DKIM_VALID || SPF_PASS || SPF_HELO_PASS) && __DMARC_POLICY_NONE
score DMARC_NONE 0.1
endif # Mail::SpamAssassin::Plugin::AskDNS
EOF

This means that a DMARC reject (p=reject in the DNS record) will turn into a +5 spam score, DMARC quarantine (p=quarantine) into a +2.5 spam score and a p=none into a +0.1 spam score.

This is how you may want to set your own DMARC record into your bind zone:

_dmarc.yourdomain.tld. IN TXT "v=DMARC1;p=reject;sp=none;pct=100;rua=mailto:postmaster@yourdomain.tld"

Of course this requires that you already have both SPF and DKIM working as explained before.

If you decide to set a similar DNS record in your DMZ view, it is important that you have set your allowed localnets in spamassassin, for example:

internal_networks 10.0.0/24

otherwise you will probably ban your system or web application mail messages in case you don't sign them.

Setting up a DMARC report analyzer

• dmarc-srg home page (github)

dmarc-srg is a php parser, viewer and summary report generator for incoming DMARC reports. It works by retrieving the reports via IMAP from a specific mailbox and by storing the data in a MySQL/MariaDB database. You can also load XML reports manually or load them from a specific directory.

• MariaDB or MySQL
• PHP 8.1 or higher
• php-mbstring, php-mysql, php-xml, php-zip, and php-json
• ImapEngine (works via composer)

Setup

The DMARC data are saved to MySQL database. Login as root user to the MariaDB/MySQL server using the shell (mysql -u root -p) and create the database and a new user called dmarc for the new database:

CREATE database dmarc;
GRANT all on dmarc.* to dmarc@localhost identified by 'new_user_password';

Change directory to where is your apache document root (/var/www/htdocs for instance) and download the package. At the moment I'm writing this article the latest code is in a pre-release status, so we have to download the main branch from github:

git clone https://github.com/liuch/dmarc-srg.git
chown -R apache:apache dmarc-srg

Setup an apache virtual domain, for example:

<VirtualHost *:443> 
 Include ${SSL_STUFF} 

 ServerName  dmarc.domain.tld 

 CustomLog ${LOGDIR}/dmarc.log combined 
 ErrorLog  ${LOGDIR}/dmarc_error.log 

 DocumentRoot ${HTDOCS}/dmarc-srg/public 
 <Directory   ${HTDOCS}/dmarc-srg/public> 
    Require all granted 
    AllowOverride All 
 </Directory> 
</VirtualHost>

Note that the only directory exposed to the web is dmarc-srg/public.

Create the config file:

cd dmarc-srg
cp config/conf.sample.php config/conf.php
chmod 640 config/conf.php

Edit conf.php and set a global password to protect the access from the web:

$admin = [ 
   // Set this value to null or remove this parameter to disable authentication 
   // Note: The authentication always fails with an empty string password. Change it if you want to use the web> 
   'password' => 'secret_pwd' 
];

Add the MySQL/MariaDB credentials:

// Settings for accessing the database where reports will be saved 
$database = [ 
   'host'         => 'localhost', // You can use a domain name here 
   'type'         => 'mysql', 
   'name'         => 'dmarc', 
   'user'         => 'dmarc', 
   'password'     => 'secret_pwd', 

   'table_prefix' => '' 
];

Now set up the mailbox which receives your DMARC reports. It is the one that you have in your DNS, dmarc@domain.tld in the following example:

v=DMARC1;p=reject;sp=none;pct=100;rua=mailto:dmarc@domain.tld

Set up a dmarc@domain.tld mailbox like this:

/** 
* It is only required if you want to get reports from a mailbox automatically. 
* In order to collect reports from several mailboxes, you should put each 
* mailbox settings in an array. 
*/ 
$mailboxes = [ 
   // Just for displaying in the web-admin and utilities. Not necessary. 
   'name'            => 'dmarc@domain.tld', 
   // Host of the email server. You can specify a port separated by a colon. 
   'host'            => 'localhost:143', 
   // Connection encryption method. The valid values are: 
   // 'none'     - without encryption (strongly not recommend). 
   // 'ssl'      - SSL/TLS on a separate port, for IMAP it is usually port 993. Default value. 
   // 'starttls' - STARTTLS method, usually on the standard IMAP port 143. 
   'encryption'      => 'none', 
   // Set true if you want to connect to the IMAP server without certificate validation 
   //'novalidate-cert' => false, 
   // Mailbox user name.
    'username'        => 'dmarc@domain.tld', 
   // Mailbox password or OAuth token when the authentication method is 'oauth'. 
   'password'        => 'secret_pwd', 
   // Authentication method. The valid values are: 
   // 'plain' - authentication with username and password. Default value. 
   // 'oauth' - OAuth authentication. Pass the token as the password. 
   //           Only available with the imap-engine library (see the fetcher->library setting). 
   'authentication'  => 'plain', 
   // Mailbox name
   'mailbox'         => 'INBOX', 
   // IMAP authentication methods to be excluded. 
   // For example: 'auth_exclude' => [ 'GSSAPI', 'NTLM' ] 
   'auth_exclude'    => [] 
];

You may want to move the DMARC reports in a particular 'dmarc' mailbox by means of a sieve rule, in this case you have to set

   'mailbox'         => 'dmarc',

for the mailbox name.

Install all the prerequisites via composer (if you didn't already install composer, have a look here where I shortly explained how to install it).

mkdir vendor
chown -R apache:apache vendor
sudo -u apache composer update

Now browse to https://dmarc.domain.tld (or whatelse) and the database will be initialized at first access.

In the sidebar menù, navigate to Administration->Admin Panel to confirm that the database connection is working:

Click over Total Sources and test the access to the dmarc@domain.tld mailbox via IMAP:

If you get a green box your settings are ok.

Browse to Settings->Domains and add all your domains for which you expect to receive reports.

Finally setup a cronjob to import the DMARC reports into the database during the night. The utils/fetch_reports.php program has to be run by apache:

# dmarc 
0 1 * * *  apache /usr/bin/php /var/www/htdocs/dmarc-srg/utils/fetch_reports.php >> /var/log/cron 2>&1

Be aware that only unread email reports will be imported, so, if you ever open one of them and leave that email as read, it will not be imported in the dmarc-srg database.

v =     DMARC1  ;   p    = reject

_dmarc apple com. 3516 IN TXT "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; sp=reject; ..."

meta DMARC_PASS (DKIM_VALID_AU || SPF_PASS && !HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS || SPF_HELO_PASS && __BOUNCE_RPATH_NULL)

meta DMARC_REJECT !(DKIM_VALID_AU && SPF_PASS) && __DMARC_POLICY_REJECT
score DMARC_REJECT 10

meta DMARC_REJECT !((!DKIM_SIGNED || DKIM_VALID_AU) && SPF_PASS) && __DMARC_POLICY_REJECT

meta DMARC_REJECT !(DKIM_VALID_AU || SPF_PASS) && __DMARC_POLICY_REJECT

meta DMARC_REJECT !(DKIM_VALID_AU || SPF_PASS) && __DMARC_POLICY_REJECT

!DKIM_VALID_AU and !SPF_PASS == if !(0 || 0) && 1 == 1 && 1 == 1 == ACTION (GOOD)
DKIM_VALID_AU and !SPF_PASS == if !(1 || 0) && 1 == 0 && 1 == 0 == NO ACTION (BAD)
!DKIM_VALID_AU and SPF_PASS == if !(0 || 1) && 1 == 0 && 1 == 0 == NO ACTION (BAD)
DKIM_VALID_AU and SPF_PASS == if !(1 || 1) && 1 == 0 && 1 == 0 == NO ACTION (GOOD)

#!/usr/bin/perl
$DKIM_VALID_AU = 1;
$SPF_PASS = 1;
$POLICY = 1;

$PRES = int( !($DKIM_VALID_AU || $SPF_PASS) );
$RES = int ( !($DKIM_VALID_AU || $SPF_PASS) && $POLICY );

print "DKIM_VALID_AU=$DKIM_VALID_AU SPF_PASS=$SPF_PASS PAREN RESULT=$PRES RESULT=$RES AKA: ";

if ($RES) {
print "ACTION\n";
} else {
print "NO ACTION\n";
}

POLICY=1 DKIM_VALID_AU=0 SPF_PASS=0 PAREN RESULT=1 RESULT=1 AKA: ACTION
POLICY=1 DKIM_VALID_AU=0 SPF_PASS=1 PAREN RESULT=0 RESULT=0 AKA: NO ACTION
POLICY=1 DKIM_VALID_AU=1 SPF_PASS=0 PAREN RESULT=0 RESULT=0 AKA: NO ACTION
POLICY=1 DKIM_VALID_AU=1 SPF_PASS=1 PAREN RESULT=0 RESULT=0 AKA: NO ACTION

meta DMARC_REJECT !(DKIM_VALID_AU && SPF_PASS) && __DMARC_POLICY_REJECT

#!/usr/bin/perl
$DKIM_VALID_AU = 1;
$SPF_PASS = 1;
$POLICY = 1;

$PRES = int( !($DKIM_VALID_AU && $SPF_PASS) );
$RES = int ( !($DKIM_VALID_AU && $SPF_PASS) && $POLICY );

print "DKIM_VALID_AU=$DKIM_VALID_AU SPF_PASS=$SPF_PASS PAREN RESULT=$PRES RESULT=$RES AKA: ";

if ($RES) {
print "ACTION\n";
} else {
print "NO ACTION\n";
}

POLICY=1 DKIM_VALID_AU=1 SPF_PASS=1 PAREN RESULT=0 RESULT=0 AKA: NO ACTION
POLICY=1 DKIM_VALID_AU=0 SPF_PASS=1 PAREN RESULT=1 RESULT=1 AKA: ACTION
POLICY=1 DKIM_VALID_AU=1 SPF_PASS=0 PAREN RESULT=1 RESULT=1 AKA: ACTION
POLICY=1 DKIM_VALID_AU=0 SPF_PASS=0 PAREN RESULT=1 RESULT=1 AKA: ACTION

POLICY=0 DKIM_VALID_AU=1 SPF_PASS=1 PAREN RESULT=0 RESULT=0 AKA: NO ACTION
POLICY=0 DKIM_VALID_AU=0 SPF_PASS=0 PAREN RESULT=1 RESULT=0 AKA: NO ACTION