PKP/Bug Fixes/SPF

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Introduction

To combat spam and email phishing a new email system called the "Sender Policy Framework" (SPF) is being adopted world wide by academic institutions and others. This is a very recent development and therefore OJS systems must be retroactively configured to support SPF. This wiki page documents these efforts at Stellenbosch University Library.

What is the SPF?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_Policy_Framework

From Wikipedia (retrieved 2016/05/17);

"Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a simple email-validation system designed to detect email spoofing by providing a mechanism to allow receiving mail exchangers to check that incoming mail from a domain comes from a host authorized by that domain's administrators.[1] The list of authorized sending hosts for a domain is published in the Domain Name System (DNS) records for that domain in the form of a specially formatted TXT record. Email spam and phishing often use forged "from" addresses, so publishing and checking SPF records can be considered anti-spam techniques."

How does the SPF work?

To determine if there is an SPF record for a sending domain, use the "dig" command as per example below in a terminal;

dig txt sun.ac.za

Sample output for "sun.ac.za"

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-Ubuntu <<>> txt sun.ac.za
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 50092
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4000
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;sun.ac.za.			IN	TXT

;; ANSWER SECTION:
sun.ac.za.		25238	IN	TXT	"University of Stellenbosch, South Africa"
sun.ac.za.		25238	IN	TXT	"ydW1uk2ljPYuIuijeNP29VqLY1fH/1BYzJ8XkvuCmpe7b1pltGc4EaZcvw7V1PTKi5JkCgzH95fQNDdjOALHwQ=="
sun.ac.za.		25238	IN	TXT	"v=spf1 ip4:146.232.64.12 ip4:146.232.64.13 ip4:146.232.64.14 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all"
sun.ac.za.		25238	IN	TXT	"Google Domain Verification 07082014"

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.1.1#53(127.0.1.1)
;; WHEN: Tue May 17 11:44:35 SAST 2016
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 353

Sample output for "uct.ac.za"

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-Ubuntu <<>> txt uct.ac.za
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 62084
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4000
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;uct.ac.za.			IN	TXT

;; ANSWER SECTION:
uct.ac.za.		3600	IN	TXT	"Ox1qfakkMKmET7grQG8BzAU0BFKkXZlwIZLm68SBnlYXFefU2YK8lhbZCzevz88UNYx5QNheElQe6z5u/uApjQ=="
uct.ac.za.		3600	IN	TXT	"v=spf1 ip4:137.158.153.103 ip4:137.158.153.104 ip4:137.158.154.116 ip4:137.158.154.166 ip4:137.158.154.117 ip4:137.158.154.165 a include:_netblocks.mimecast.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com ~all"
uct.ac.za.		3600	IN	TXT	"MS=ms97433074"

;; Query time: 11 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.1.1#53(127.0.1.1)
;; WHEN: Tue May 17 11:48:43 SAST 2016
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 378

Sample output for "up.ac.za"

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-Ubuntu <<>> txt up.ac.za
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 51005
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4000
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;up.ac.za.			IN	TXT

;; ANSWER SECTION:
up.ac.za.		3600	IN	TXT	"google-site-verification=uZeP8pM4K0sBZNWCE4gAo8-gK4_WzH-nFuMRUlk4408"
up.ac.za.		3600	IN	TXT	"MS=ms60833582"
up.ac.za.		3600	IN	TXT	"v=spf1 ip4:137.215.0.0/16 mx ?all"

;; Query time: 22 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.1.1#53(127.0.1.1)
;; WHEN: Tue May 17 11:50:04 SAST 2016
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 190

See:http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4082935/using-dig-to-search-for-spf-records

References

• https://pkp.sfu.ca/wiki/index.php/PKP_Frequently_Asked_Questions#Emails_aren.27t_being_received_by_users.2C_or_I_am_encountering_Sender_Policy_Framework_.28SPF.29_validation_issues_on_sending_email.3B_what_should_I_do.3F
• http://www.unifiedemail.net/Tools/SPFParser