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SPF (Sender Permitted From) is a new machanism which allows you to define what ip addresses are permitted to send mail 'from' your domain, this will stop spammers from pretending to send message from your domain.

What you should do?

• Define an SPF text record in your DNS entry for your domain(s) (this is not required but is a good idea)

• If using surgemail, update to SurgeMail 2.0e or later and add these settings:

What setting makes it block messages ?

Nothing is blocked when you set g_spf_mode 'strict' so that is always safe. When messages are blocked they are blocked using the SurgeMail 'allow' system so that the sending user (if they are a real human) can fix the problem without intervention from an administrator.
To actually block spam you must do one of these:
1) Set g_spam_block 'true' (that sets it on for everyone by default)
2) Set the domain setting spam_block 'true' (which sets it on for everyone in a given domain)
3) In the web user settings, login and click on SPF on the left hand side, then set the option box at the top to 'True'

Doesn't SPF rely on the senders creating spf records ?

No, in strict mode surgemail makes up an spf record for all incoming domains so it works for everyone. When the made up spf record fails (which is rare) surgemail then provides other checks and mechanisms so real email can still get through.

What about 'DomainKeys' ?

DomainKeys is a cryptographic solution which is similar to SPF, in general, SPF does everything that domainkeys does, but without the extra load and complexity of cryptography. We recommend you also use domainkeys tests (available in the latest versions of surgemail) for incoming email to cope with the two large providers who refuse to define SPF records (apparently for political reasons).

Also see SurgeMail Spam Prevention Guide

Why/How will SPF stop spam?

There are two types of spam, legitimate businesses sending email from real domains to people who haven't asked for it, this type of spam is annoying, but trivial to filter with simple rules and RBL databases. And most businesses are learning not to do this as they rapidly find themselves cut off from the customers they do want to talk to. This type of spam will continue but at a relatively lower level, it isn't really a problem.

The second type of spam is the problem, it's sent by people who use fake 'from' addresses and domains, via multiple ip addresses and virus mail slaves, meaning each email comes from a new ip address, each email is written specifically to evade the filters, and new variants are written each day. These mails are more or less impossible to filter. However, this second set is trivial to block with SPF!!!

SurgeMail and SPF (Cool features)

• Full implementation of SPF, SRS and Macro's, all controlled with simple config settings (Install version 2.0 or later)
• Built in test page https://localhost:7025/?cmd=spf for testing SPF processing on sample addresses.
• Additional 'strict' settings to block spammers while letting through most legit email even if SPF records don't exist.
• Additional 'allow' mechanism so false positives can be corrected without administrator intervention
• Internal long term IP database of known addresses, known spammers, and known non spammers, linked to the 'aspam' system.

Turning on SPF with SurgeMail

Add the setting 'g_spf_mode', set it to 'block', or 'stamp', or 'strict'

When SurgeMail does bounce a message (which will be rare anyway due to the other checks) it will give an email address that the sending person can send to to 'allow' their ip address. Then that user will be able to send without problems. The entire net block is enabled x.y.z.* so related mail severs won't get problems.

The following additional settings may be useful too:

g_spf_domain 'main.domain.name'

This is the domain spf will use for the unblock message set this if the default domain it chooses is not appropriate. Make sure email addressed to this domain will arrive on this server (e.g. add an mx or a record if needed)

g_spf_rewrite 'true'

This enables SPF/SRS rewriting of from addresses on forwarded email, which is crucial if other servers are obeying SPF records, you only need this setting if you allow users to forward email to other servers. If you have multiple incoming mail servers copy the file srs.secret to all of the servers in question (it should contain a random number.

g_spam_allow_rbl 'true'

This applies the same 'allow' mechanism to RBL/ORBS lookups, which means it's much safer to use a 'deny' action instead of the softer 'stamp' action.

g_spam_allow_msg '||reason||, send to ||allow|| then resend your message.'

This lets you change the format of the 'allow' error.

g_spam_allow_known 'true'

This is good to set as it means only new 'unknown' ip addresses are blocked for SPF reasons.
so it's not a transient spammer'

g_spf_skip_from 'noreply@*.paypal.com'

Use this setting to selectively allow from addresses from badly behaved systems which routinely come from random ip addresses, like paypal. As long as you keep this list short and fairly specific it will be very difficult for a spammer to make any useful use of it.

g_spf_rev_skip '*.ebay.com'

Setting to skip spf checks if reverse ip matches, e.g.

Use to define any badly behaved forwarding sites (sites that forward email for
many domains but don't correctly use SRS rewriting rules.

g_spf_share 'other.mx.host'

Use this setting so when an 'allow' message is received and is valid it is then forwarded to other mx hosts so the information is shared. You must also copy the srs.secret file to all mx servers.

g_spf_default

This lets you over-ride the default rule which is applied when a domain has no spf rule. The default is:

mx/16 a ptr:%{d2} -all

However the 'd2' is replaced with 'd3' for country level domains. So generally this default is best left alone.

Settings which control what SurgeMail does with an spf failure

Gateways & Filters and secondary MX hosts

SPF must be implemented on the servers that receive email from the outside world, so if you have filters in between the internet and your real mail server, then you need to enable spf on the filter system.

The same applies to secondary MX hosts, but in this case you must do one of two things so that the messages from the secondary mx host are accepted by the primary host, e.g.

• With SurgeMail version 2.0h or later use g_spf_skip 'x.x.x.x' where 'x.x.x.x' is the ip address of your other mail server(s) (a comma seperated or wild card list).
• Turn on g_spf_rewrite 'True', which means anything that is accepted for delivery by the secondary mx is from then on immune to spf checks from 'any' server.
  
• On the primary server list the secondary server as a trusted host e.g. 'g_verify_mx_skip x.x.x.x' where 'x.x.x.x' is the ip address of the secondary server.
• Use g_spf_share 'other.host1,other.host2' on each server so they can share allow information between themselves.

NOTE: Copy the file srs.secret between all cluster/mx servers so it matches on all systems, this file contains a random number which is used to verify srs and allow emails. This file will only exist once you start using SPF, it resides in the g_home directory.

tellmail spf_export file.name
tellmail spf_import file.name

Exports the list of 'known' ip addresses to a file suitable to copy to another system, use this when adding an incoming mx gateway if you want it to already know about all existing 'trusted' ip addresses. The file name is relative to the surgemail home directory, not your current working directory!

Authent Module support

Your authent module must support an extra string field 'spf_block'

spf_block, valid values are 'true,false,blank'
true = block
false = don't block
blank = system default.

+OK user@here.com 0 spf_block='FALSE'

Debugging

See the file allow.log to see why messages are let through or blocked when using these settings.

How to define an SPF record for my domain

Start with something like this, replace 1.2.3.4 with the ip address of your mail server.

In addition you should probably add a DMARC record to tell other servers to enforce spf for your domain:

That's probably all you need. You can send from any address 1.2.3.0-1.2.3.255 which will probably be fine for most purposes. It's simple, and efficient. If you want though you could add a little more. But remember the more you add, the slower it is to process, and the more likely you will make a mistake. Here is a good basic rule that adds in the mx records which will help if you change things in future...

Cincinnati State Surgemail

How do I check my spf record for my domain

The best way is to use the SPF test page in surgemail (Spam Control - SPF Settings - Test SPF Records). This will allow you to test any sending ip address + from address + spf record combination. This allows you to:

1. Check your new spf record before configuring your DNS server
2. Test any domain to see whether an spf record has been setup, and setup correctly

eg sending mail from valid (216.65.3.228) and invalid (1.2.3.4) ip address for surgemail-support account on domain netwinsite.com :

Other SPF resources:

• The SPF Home Page
• The SPF wizard for generating rules
• http://softdroid.net/spf - Ukraine translation of this web page (by Android SDK)

The rest of this page summarizes some features of SurgeMail.

Surgemail Htc

• Web based administration (user, domain and server)
• Interface to existing user databases (OBDC, MySQLl, LDAP, etc or use built in database)
• Runs on platform of choice (Windows, most Unix versions)
• Installs in minutes and unparalleled after sales service
• Cellphone SMS/Text messages via SMSGate (FREE)