parsedmarc/docs/source/index.md

parsedmarc documentation - Open source DMARC report analyzer and visualizer

:::{note} Help Wanted

This is a project is maintained by one developer. Please consider reviewing the open issues to see how you can contribute code, documentation, or user support. Assistance on the pinned issues would be particularly helpful.

Thanks to all contributors! :::

:align: center
:alt: A screenshot of DMARC summary charts in Kibana
:scale: 50 %
:target: _static/screenshots/dmarc-summary-charts.png

parsedmarc is a Python module and CLI utility for parsing DMARC reports. When used with Elasticsearch and Kibana (or Splunk), it works as a self-hosted open source alternative to commercial DMARC report processing services such as Agari Brand Protection, Dmarcian, OnDMARC, ProofPoint Email Fraud Defense, and Valimail.

Features

• Parses draft and 1.0 standard aggregate/rua reports
• Parses forensic/failure/ruf reports
• Can parse reports from an inbox over IMAP, Microsoft Graph, or Gmail API
• Transparently handles gzip or zip compressed reports
• Consistent data structures
• Simple JSON and/or CSV output
• Optionally email the results
• Optionally send the results to Elasticsearch and/or Splunk, for use with premade dashboards
• Optionally send reports to Apache Kafka

Resources

DMARC guides

• Demystifying DMARC - A complete guide to SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

SPF and DMARC record validation

If you are looking for SPF and DMARC record validation and parsing, check out the sister project, checkdmarc.

Lookalike domains

DMARC protects against domain spoofing, not lookalike domains. for open source lookalike domain monitoring, check out DomainAware.

CLI help

usage: parsedmarc [-h] [-c CONFIG_FILE] [--strip-attachment-payloads] [-o OUTPUT]
                   [--aggregate-json-filename AGGREGATE_JSON_FILENAME]
                   [--forensic-json-filename FORENSIC_JSON_FILENAME]
                   [--aggregate-csv-filename AGGREGATE_CSV_FILENAME]
                   [--forensic-csv-filename FORENSIC_CSV_FILENAME]
                   [-n NAMESERVERS [NAMESERVERS ...]] [-t DNS_TIMEOUT] [--offline]
                   [-s] [--verbose] [--debug] [--log-file LOG_FILE] [-v]
                   [file_path ...]

 Parses DMARC reports

 positional arguments:
   file_path             one or more paths to aggregate or forensic report
                         files, emails, or mbox files'

 optional arguments:
   -h, --help            show this help message and exit
   -c CONFIG_FILE, --config-file CONFIG_FILE
                         a path to a configuration file (--silent implied)
   --strip-attachment-payloads
                         remove attachment payloads from forensic report output
   -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                         write output files to the given directory
   --aggregate-json-filename AGGREGATE_JSON_FILENAME
                         filename for the aggregate JSON output file
   --forensic-json-filename FORENSIC_JSON_FILENAME
                         filename for the forensic JSON output file
   --aggregate-csv-filename AGGREGATE_CSV_FILENAME
                         filename for the aggregate CSV output file
   --forensic-csv-filename FORENSIC_CSV_FILENAME
                         filename for the forensic CSV output file
   -n NAMESERVERS [NAMESERVERS ...], --nameservers NAMESERVERS [NAMESERVERS ...]
                         nameservers to query
   -t DNS_TIMEOUT, --dns_timeout DNS_TIMEOUT
                         number of seconds to wait for an answer from DNS
                         (default: 2.0)
   --offline             do not make online queries for geolocation or DNS
   -s, --silent          only print errors and warnings
   --verbose             more verbose output
   --debug               print debugging information
   --log-file LOG_FILE   output logging to a file
   -v, --version         show program's version number and exit

:::{note} Starting in parsedmarc 6.0.0, most CLI options were moved to a configuration file, described below. :::

Configuration file

parsedmarc can be configured by supplying the path to an INI file

parsedmarc -c /etc/parsedmarc.ini

For example

# This is an example comment

[general]
save_aggregate = True
save_forensic = True

[imap]
host = imap.example.com
user = dmarcresports@example.com
password = $uperSecure

[mailbox]
watch = True
delete = False

[elasticsearch]
hosts = 127.0.0.1:9200
ssl = False

[splunk_hec]
url = https://splunkhec.example.com
token = HECTokenGoesHere
index = email

[s3]
bucket = my-bucket
path = parsedmarc

[syslog]
server = localhost
port = 514

The full set of configuration options are:

• general

  • save_aggregate - bool: Save aggregate report data to Elasticsearch, Splunk and/or S3

  • save_forensic - bool: Save forensic report data to Elasticsearch, Splunk and/or S3

  • strip_attachment_payloads - bool: Remove attachment payloads from results

  • output - str: Directory to place JSON and CSV files in

  • aggregate_json_filename - str: filename for the aggregate JSON output file

  • forensic_json_filename - str: filename for the forensic JSON output file

  • ip_db_path - str: An optional custom path to a MMDB file

  • from MaxMind or DBIP

  • offline - bool: Do not use online queries for geolocation or DNS

  • nameservers - str: A comma separated list of DNS resolvers (Default: Cloudflare's public resolvers)

  • dns_timeout - float: DNS timeout period

  • debug - bool: Print debugging messages

  • silent - bool: Only print errors (Default: True)

  • log_file - str: Write log messages to a file at this path

  • n_procs - int: Number of process to run in parallel when parsing in CLI mode (Default: 1)

  • chunk_size - int: Number of files to give to each process when running in parallel.

    :::{note} Setting this to a number larger than one can improve performance when processing thousands of files :::

• mailbox

  • reports_folder - str: The mailbox folder (or label for Gmail) where the incoming reports can be found (Default: INBOX)

  • archive_folder - str: The mailbox folder (or label for Gmail) to sort processed emails into (Default: Archive)
  • watch - bool: Use the IMAP IDLE command to process
  • messages as they arrive or poll MS Graph for new messages
  • delete - bool: Delete messages after processing them,
  • instead of archiving them
  • test - bool: Do not move or delete messages
  • batch_size - int: Number of messages to read and process before saving. Default 10. Use 0 for no limit.
  • check_timeout - int: Number of seconds to wait for a IMAP IDLE response or the number of seconds until the next mai check (Default: 30)

• imap

  • host - str: The IMAP server hostname or IP address

  • port - int: The IMAP server port (Default: 993)

    :::{note} % characters must be escaped with another % character, so use %% wherever a % character is used. :::

    :::{note} Starting in version 8.0.0, most options from the imap section have been moved to the mailbox section. :::

    :::{note} If your host recommends another port, still try 993 :::

  • ssl - bool: Use an encrypted SSL/TLS connection (Default: True)

  • skip_certificate_verification - bool: Skip certificate verification (not recommended)

  • user - str: The IMAP user

  • password - str: The IMAP password

• msgraph

  • auth_method - str: Authentication method, valid types are UsernamePassword, DeviceCode, or ClientSecret (Default: UsernamePassword).

  • user - str: The M365 user, required when the auth method is UsernamePassword

  • password - str: The user password, required when the auth method is UsernamePassword

  • client_id - str: The app registration's client ID

  • client_secret - str: The app registration's secret

  • tenant_id - str: The Azure AD tenant ID. This is required for all auth methods except UsernamePassword.

  • mailbox - str: The mailbox name. This defaults to the current user if using the UsernamePassword auth method, but could be a shared mailbox if the user has access to the mailbox

  • token_file - str: Path to save the token file (Default: .token)

    :::{note} You must create an app registration in Azure AD and have an admin grant the Microsoft Graph Mail.ReadWrite (delegated) permission to the app. If you are using UsernamePassword auth and the mailbox is different from the username, you must grant the app Mail.ReadWrite.Shared. :::

    :::{warning} If you are using the ClientSecret auth method, you need to grant the Mail.ReadWrite (application) permission to the app. You must also restrict the application's access to a specific mailbox since it allows all mailboxes by default. Use the New-ApplicationAccessPolicy command in the Exchange PowerShell module. If you need to scope the policy to shared mailboxes, you can add them to a mail enabled security group and use that as the group id.

    New-ApplicationAccessPolicy -AccessRight RestrictAccess
    -AppId "<CLIENT_ID>" -PolicyScopeGroupId "<MAILBOX>"
    -Description "Restrict access to dmarc reports mailbox."
    

    :::

• elasticsearch

  • hosts - str: A comma separated list of hostnames and ports or URLs (e.g. 127.0.0.1:9200 or https://user:secret@localhost)

  :::{note} Special characters in the username or password must be URL encoded. :::

  • ssl - bool: Use an encrypted SSL/TLS connection (Default: True)
  • cert_path - str: Path to a trusted certificates
  • index_suffix - str: A suffix to apply to the index names
  • monthly_indexes - bool: Use monthly indexes instead of daily indexes
  • number_of_shards - int: The number of shards to use when creating the index (Default: 1)
  • number_of_replicas - int: The number of replicas to use when creating the index (Default: 1)

• splunk_hec

  • url - str: The URL of the Splunk HTTP Events Collector (HEC)

  • token - str: The HEC token
  • index - str: The Splunk index to use
  • skip_certificate_verification - bool: Skip certificate verification (not recommended)

• kafka

  • hosts - str: A comma separated list of Kafka hosts

  • user - str: The Kafka user
  • passsword - str: The Kafka password
  • ssl - bool: Use an encrypted SSL/TLS connection (Default: True)
  • skip_certificate_verification - bool: Skip certificate verification (not recommended)
  • aggregate_topic - str: The Kafka topic for aggregate reports
  • forensic_topic - str: The Kafka topic for forensic reports

• smtp

  • host - str: The SMTP hostname

  • port - int: The SMTP port (Default: 25)

  • ssl - bool: Require SSL/TLS instead of using STARTTLS

  • skip_certificate_verification - bool: Skip certificate verification (not recommended)

  • user - str: the SMTP username

  • password - str: the SMTP password

  • from - str: The From header to use in the email

  • to - list: A list of email addresses to send to

  • subject - str: The Subject header to use in the email (Default: parsedmarc report)

  • attachment - str: The ZIP attachment filenames

  • message - str: The email message (Default: Please see the attached parsedmarc report.)

    :::{note} % characters must be escaped with another % character, so use %% wherever a % character is used. :::

• s3

  • bucket - str: The S3 bucket name

  • path - str: The path to upload reports to (Default: /)
  • region_name - str: The region name (Optional)
  • endpoint_url - str: The endpoint URL (Optional)
  • access_key_id - str: The access key id (Optional)
  • secret_access_key - str: The secret access key (Optional)

• syslog

  • server - str: The Syslog server name or IP address

  • port - int: The UDP port to use (Default: 514)

• gmail_api

  • credentials_file - str: Path to file containing the credentials, None to disable (Default: None)

  • token_file - str: Path to save the token file (Default: .token)
  • include_spam_trash - bool: Include messages in Spam and Trash when searching reports (Default: False)
  • scopes - str: Comma separated list of scopes to use when acquiring credentials (Default: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.modify)
  • oauth2_port - int: The TCP port for the local server to listen on for the OAuth2 response (Default: 8080)

:::{warning} It is strongly recommended to not use the nameservers setting. By default, parsedmarc uses Cloudflare's public resolvers, which are much faster and more reliable than Google, Cisco OpenDNS, or even most local resolvers.

The nameservers option should only be used if your network blocks DNS requests to outside resolvers. :::

:::{warning} save_aggregate and save_forensic are separate options because you may not want to save forensic reports (also known as failure reports) to your Elasticsearch instance, particularly if you are in a highly-regulated industry that handles sensitive data, such as healthcare or finance. If your legitimate outgoing email fails DMARC, it is possible that email may appear later in a forensic report.

Forensic reports contain the original headers of an email that failed a DMARC check, and sometimes may also include the full message body, depending on the policy of the reporting organization.

Most reporting organizations do not send forensic reports of any kind for privacy reasons. While aggregate DMARC reports are sent at least daily, it is normal to receive very few forensic reports.

An alternative approach is to still collect forensic/failure/ruf reports in your DMARC inbox, but run parsedmarc with save_forensic = True``manually on a separate IMAP folder (using the ``reports_folder option), after you have manually moved known samples you want to save to that folder (e.g. malicious samples and non-sensitive legitimate samples). :::

Sample aggregate report output

Here are the results from parsing the example report from the dmarc.org wiki. It's actually an older draft of the the 1.0 report schema standardized in RFC 7480 Appendix C. This draft schema is still in wide use.

parsedmarc produces consistent, normalized output, regardless of the report schema.

JSON

{
  "xml_schema": "draft",
  "report_metadata": {
    "org_name": "acme.com",
    "org_email": "noreply-dmarc-support@acme.com",
    "org_extra_contact_info": "http://acme.com/dmarc/support",
    "report_id": "9391651994964116463",
    "begin_date": "2012-04-27 20:00:00",
    "end_date": "2012-04-28 19:59:59",
    "errors": []
  },
  "policy_published": {
    "domain": "example.com",
    "adkim": "r",
    "aspf": "r",
    "p": "none",
    "sp": "none",
    "pct": "100",
    "fo": "0"
  },
  "records": [
    {
      "source": {
        "ip_address": "72.150.241.94",
        "country": "US",
        "reverse_dns": "adsl-72-150-241-94.shv.bellsouth.net",
        "base_domain": "bellsouth.net"
      },
      "count": 2,
      "alignment": {
        "spf": true,
        "dkim": false,
        "dmarc": true
      },
      "policy_evaluated": {
        "disposition": "none",
        "dkim": "fail",
        "spf": "pass",
        "policy_override_reasons": []
      },
      "identifiers": {
        "header_from": "example.com",
        "envelope_from": "example.com",
        "envelope_to": null
      },
      "auth_results": {
        "dkim": [
          {
            "domain": "example.com",
            "selector": "none",
            "result": "fail"
          }
        ],
        "spf": [
          {
            "domain": "example.com",
            "scope": "mfrom",
            "result": "pass"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

CSV

xml_schema,org_name,org_email,org_extra_contact_info,report_id,begin_date,end_date,errors,domain,adkim,aspf,p,sp,pct,fo,source_ip_address,source_country,source_reverse_dns,source_base_domain,count,spf_aligned,dkim_aligned,dmarc_aligned,disposition,policy_override_reasons,policy_override_comments,envelope_from,header_from,envelope_to,dkim_domains,dkim_selectors,dkim_results,spf_domains,spf_scopes,spf_results
draft,acme.com,noreply-dmarc-support@acme.com,http://acme.com/dmarc/support,9391651994964116463,2012-04-27 20:00:00,2012-04-28 19:59:59,,example.com,r,r,none,none,100,0,72.150.241.94,US,adsl-72-150-241-94.shv.bellsouth.net,bellsouth.net,2,True,False,True,none,,,example.com,example.com,,example.com,none,fail,example.com,mfrom,pass

Sample forensic report output

Thanks to Github user xennn for the anonymized forensic report email sample.

JSON

{
     "feedback_type": "auth-failure",
     "user_agent": "Lua/1.0",
     "version": "1.0",
     "original_mail_from": "sharepoint@domain.de",
     "original_rcpt_to": "peter.pan@domain.de",
     "arrival_date": "Mon, 01 Oct 2018 11:20:27 +0200",
     "message_id": "<38.E7.30937.BD6E1BB5@ mailrelay.de>",
     "authentication_results": "dmarc=fail (p=none, dis=none) header.from=domain.de",
     "delivery_result": "policy",
     "auth_failure": [
       "dmarc"
     ],
     "reported_domain": "domain.de",
     "arrival_date_utc": "2018-10-01 09:20:27",
     "source": {
       "ip_address": "10.10.10.10",
       "country": null,
       "reverse_dns": null,
       "base_domain": null
     },
     "authentication_mechanisms": [],
     "original_envelope_id": null,
     "dkim_domain": null,
     "sample_headers_only": false,
     "sample": "Received: from Servernameone.domain.local (Servernameone.domain.local [10.10.10.10])\n\tby  mailrelay.de (mail.DOMAIN.de) with SMTP id 38.E7.30937.BD6E1BB5; Mon,  1 Oct 2018 11:20:27 +0200 (CEST)\nDate: 01 Oct 2018 11:20:27 +0200\nMessage-ID: <38.E7.30937.BD6E1BB5@ mailrelay.de>\nTo: <peter.pan@domain.de>\nfrom: \"=?utf-8?B?SW50ZXJha3RpdmUgV2V0dGJld2VyYmVyLcOcYmVyc2ljaHQ=?=\" <sharepoint@domain.de>\nSubject: Subject\nMIME-Version: 1.0\nX-Mailer: Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010\nContent-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8\nContent-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable\n\n<html><head><base href=3D'\nwettbewerb' /></head><body><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN\"=\n><HTML><HEAD><META NAME=3D\"Generator\" CONTENT=3D\"MS Exchange Server version=\n 08.01.0240.003\"></html>\n",
     "parsed_sample": {
       "from": {
         "display_name": "Interaktive Wettbewerber-Übersicht",
         "address": "sharepoint@domain.de",
         "local": "sharepoint",
         "domain": "domain.de"
       },
       "to_domains": [
         "domain.de"
       ],
       "to": [
         {
           "display_name": null,
           "address": "peter.pan@domain.de",
           "local": "peter.pan",
           "domain": "domain.de"
         }
       ],
       "subject": "Subject",
       "timezone": "+2",
       "mime-version": "1.0",
       "date": "2018-10-01 09:20:27",
       "content-type": "text/html; charset=utf-8",
       "x-mailer": "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010",
       "body": "<html><head><base href='\nwettbewerb' /></head><body><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN\"><HTML><HEAD><META NAME=\"Generator\" CONTENT=\"MS Exchange Server version 08.01.0240.003\"></html>",
       "received": [
         {
           "from": "Servernameone.domain.local Servernameone.domain.local 10.10.10.10",
           "by": "mailrelay.de mail.DOMAIN.de",
           "with": "SMTP id 38.E7.30937.BD6E1BB5",
           "date": "Mon, 1 Oct 2018 11:20:27 +0200 CEST",
           "hop": 1,
           "date_utc": "2018-10-01 09:20:27",
           "delay": 0
         }
       ],
       "content-transfer-encoding": "quoted-printable",
       "message-id": "<38.E7.30937.BD6E1BB5@ mailrelay.de>",
       "has_defects": false,
       "headers": {
         "Received": "from Servernameone.domain.local (Servernameone.domain.local [10.10.10.10])\n\tby  mailrelay.de (mail.DOMAIN.de) with SMTP id 38.E7.30937.BD6E1BB5; Mon,  1 Oct 2018 11:20:27 +0200 (CEST)",
         "Date": "01 Oct 2018 11:20:27 +0200",
         "Message-ID": "<38.E7.30937.BD6E1BB5@ mailrelay.de>",
         "To": "<peter.pan@domain.de>",
         "from": "\"Interaktive Wettbewerber-Übersicht\" <sharepoint@domain.de>",
         "Subject": "Subject",
         "MIME-Version": "1.0",
         "X-Mailer": "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010",
         "Content-Type": "text/html; charset=utf-8",
         "Content-Transfer-Encoding": "quoted-printable"
       },
       "reply_to": [],
       "cc": [],
       "bcc": [],
       "attachments": [],
       "filename_safe_subject": "Subject"
     }
   }

CSV

feedback_type,user_agent,version,original_envelope_id,original_mail_from,original_rcpt_to,arrival_date,arrival_date_utc,subject,message_id,authentication_results,dkim_domain,source_ip_address,source_country,source_reverse_dns,source_base_domain,delivery_result,auth_failure,reported_domain,authentication_mechanisms,sample_headers_only
auth-failure,Lua/1.0,1.0,,sharepoint@domain.de,peter.pan@domain.de,"Mon, 01 Oct 2018 11:20:27 +0200",2018-10-01 09:20:27,Subject,<38.E7.30937.BD6E1BB5@ mailrelay.de>,"dmarc=fail (p=none, dis=none) header.from=domain.de",,10.10.10.10,,,,policy,dmarc,domain.de,,False

Bug reports

Please report bugs on the GitHub issue tracker

https://github.com/domainaware/parsedmarc/issues

Installation

parsedmarc works with Python 3 only.

:::{note} If your system is behind a web proxy, you need to configure your system to use that proxy. To do this, edit /etc/environment and add your proxy details there, for example:

http_proxy=http://user:password@prox-server:3128
https_proxy=https://user:password@prox-server:3128
ftp_proxy=http://user:password@prox-server:3128

Or if no credentials are needed:

http_proxy=http://prox-server:3128
https_proxy=https://prox-server:3128
ftp_proxy=http://prox-server:3128

This will set the the proxy up for use system-wide, including for parsedmarc. :::

:::{warning} If your mail server is Microsoft Exchange, ensure that it is patched to at least:

• Exchange Server 2010 Update Rollup 22 (KB4295699)
• Exchange Server 2013 Cumulative Update 21 (KB4099855)
• Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 11 (KB4134118) :::

geoipupdate setup

:::{note} Starting in parsedmarc 7.1.0, a static copy of the IP to Country Lite database from IPDB is distributed with parsedmarc, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. as a fallback if the MaxMind GeoLite2 Country database is not installed However, parsedmarc cannot install updated versions of these databases as they are released, so MaxMind's databases and geoipupdate tool is still the preferable solution.

The location of the database file can be overridden by using the ip_db_path setting. :::

On Debian 10 (Buster) or later, run:

sudo apt-get install -y geoipupdate

On Ubuntu systems run:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maxmind/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y geoipupdate

On CentOS or RHEL systems, run:

sudo dnf install -y geoipupdate

The latest builds for Linux, macOS, and Windows can be downloaded from the geoipupdate releases page on GitHub.

On December 30th, 2019, MaxMind started requiring free accounts to access the free Geolite2 databases, in order to comply with various privacy regulations.

Start by registering for a free GeoLite2 account, and signing in.

Then, navigate the to the License Keys page under your account, and create a new license key for the version of geoipupdate that was installed.

:::{warning} The configuration file format is different for older (i.e. <=3.1.1) and newer (i.e. >=3.1.1) versions of geoipupdate. Be sure to select the correct version for your system. :::

:::{note} To check the version of geoipupdate that is installed, run:

geoipupdate -V

:::

You can use parsedmarc as the description for the key.

Once you have generated a key, download the config pre-filled configuration file. This file should be saved at /etc/GeoIP.conf on Linux or macOS systems, or at %SystemDrive%\ProgramData\MaxMind\GeoIPUpdate\GeoIP.conf on Windows systems.

Then run

sudo geoipupdate

To download the databases for the first time.

The GeoLite2 Country, City, and ASN databases are updated weekly, every Tuesday. geoipupdate can be run weekly by adding a cron job or scheduled task.

More information about geoipupdate can be found at the MaxMind geoipupdate page.

Installing parsedmarc

On Debian or Ubuntu systems, run:

sudo apt-get install -y python3-pip python3-virtualenv python3-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev

On CentOS or RHEL systems, run:

sudo dnf install -y python39 python3-virtualenv python3-setuptools python3-devel libxml2-devel libxslt-devel

Python 3 installers for Windows and macOS can be found at https://www.python.org/downloads/

Create a system user

sudo mkdir /opt
sudo useradd parsedmarc -r -s /bin/false -m -b /opt

Install parsedmarc in a virtualenv

sudo -u parsedmarc virtualenv /opt/parsedmarc/venv

CentOS/RHEL 8 systems use Python 3.6 by default, so on those systems explicitly tell virtualenv to use python3.9 instead

sudo -u parsedmarc virtualenv -p python3.9  /opt/parsedmarc/venv

To install or upgrade parsedmarc inside the virtualenv, run:

sudo -u parsedmarc /opt/parsedmarc/venv -U parsedmarc

Optional dependencies

If you would like to be able to parse emails saved from Microsoft Outlook (i.e. OLE .msg files), install msgconvert:

On Debian or Ubuntu systems, run:

sudo apt-get install libemail-outlook-message-perl

Testing multiple report analyzers

If you would like to test parsedmarc and another report processing solution at the same time, you can have up to two mailto URIs each in the rua and ruf tags in your DMARC record, separated by commas.

Accessing an inbox using OWA/EWS

:::{note} Starting in 8.0.0, parsedmarc supports accessing Microsoft/Office 365 inboxes via the Microsoft Graph API, which is preferred over Davmail. :::

Some organizations do not allow IMAP or the Microsoft Graph API, and only support Exchange Web Services (EWS)/Outlook Web Access (OWA). In that case, Davmail will need to be set up as a local EWS/OWA IMAP gateway. It can even work where Modern Auth/multi-factor authentication is required.

To do this, download the latest davmail-version.zip from https://sourceforge.net/projects/davmail/files/

Extract the zip using the unzip command.

Install Java:

sudo apt-get install default-jre-headless

Configure Davmail by creating a davmail.properties file

# DavMail settings, see http://davmail.sourceforge.net/ for documentation

#############################################################
# Basic settings

# Server or workstation mode
davmail.server=true

# connection mode auto, EWS or WebDav
davmail.enableEws=auto

# base Exchange OWA or EWS url
davmail.url=https://outlook.office365.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx

# Listener ports
davmail.imapPort=1143

#############################################################
# Network settings

# Network proxy settings
davmail.enableProxy=false
davmail.useSystemProxies=false
davmail.proxyHost=
davmail.proxyPort=
davmail.proxyUser=
davmail.proxyPassword=

# proxy exclude list
davmail.noProxyFor=

# block remote connection to DavMail
davmail.allowRemote=false

# bind server sockets to the loopback address
davmail.bindAddress=127.0.0.1

# disable SSL for specified listeners
davmail.ssl.nosecureimap=true

# Send keepalive character during large folder and messages download
davmail.enableKeepalive=true

# Message count limit on folder retrieval
davmail.folderSizeLimit=0

#############################################################
# IMAP settings

# Delete messages immediately on IMAP STORE \Deleted flag
davmail.imapAutoExpunge=true

# Enable IDLE support, set polling delay in minutes
davmail.imapIdleDelay=1

# Always reply to IMAP RFC822.SIZE requests with Exchange approximate
# message size for performance reasons
davmail.imapAlwaysApproxMsgSize=true

# Client connection timeout in seconds - default 300, 0 to disable
davmail.clientSoTimeout=0

#############################################################

Running DavMail as a systemd service

Use systemd to run davmail as a service.

Create a system user

sudo useradd davmail -r -s /bin/false

Protect the davmail configuration file from prying eyes

sudo chown root:davmail /opt/davmail/davmail.properties
sudo chmod u=rw,g=r,o= /opt/davmail/davmail.properties

Create the service configuration file

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/davmail.service

[Unit]
Description=DavMail gateway service
Documentation=https://sourceforge.net/projects/davmail/
Wants=network-online.target
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/davmail/davmail /opt/davmail/davmail.properties
User=davmail
Group=davmail
Restart=always
RestartSec=5m

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then, enable the service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable parsedmarc.service
sudo service davmail restart

:::{note} You must also run the above commands whenever you edit davmail.service. :::

:::{warning} Always restart the service every time you upgrade to a new version of davmail:

sudo service davmail restart

:::

To check the status of the service, run:

service davmail status

:::{note} In the event of a crash, systemd will restart the service after 5 minutes, but the service davmail status command will only show the logs for the current process. To vew the logs for previous runs as well as the current process (newest to oldest), run:

journalctl -u davmail.service -r

:::

Configuring parsedmarc for DavMail

Because you are interacting with DavMail server over the loopback (i.e. 127.0.0.1), add the following options to parsedmarc.ini config file:

[imap]
host=127.0.0.1
port=1143
ssl=False
watch=True

Elasticsearch and Kibana

:::{note} Splunk is also supported starting with parsedmarc 4.3.0 :::

To set up visual dashboards of DMARC data, install Elasticsearch and Kibana.

:::{note} Elasticsearch and Kibana 6 or later are required :::

On Debian/Ubuntu based systems, run:

sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https
wget -qO - https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-7.x.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y default-jre-headless elasticsearch kibana

For CentOS, RHEL, and other RPM systems, follow the Elastic RPM guides for Elasticsearch and Kibana.

:::{warning} The default JVM heap size for Elasticsearch is very small (1g), which will cause it to crash under a heavy load. To fix this, increase the minimum and maximum JVM heap sizes in /etc/elasticsearch/jvm.options to more reasonable levels, depending on your server's resources.

Make sure the system has at least 2 GB more RAM then the assigned JVM heap size.

Always set the minimum and maximum JVM heap sizes to the same value.

For example, to set a 4 GB heap size, set

-Xms4g
-Xmx4g

See https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/heap-size.html for more information. :::

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable elasticsearch.service
sudo systemctl enable kibana.service
sudo service elasticsearch start
sudo service kibana start

Without the commercial X-Pack or ReadonlyREST products, Kibana does not have any authentication mechanism of its own. You can use nginx as a reverse proxy that provides basic authentication.

sudo apt-get install -y nginx apache2-utils

Or, on CentOS:

sudo yum install -y nginx httpd-tools

Create a directory to store the certificates and keys:

mkdir ~/ssl
cd ~/ssl

To create a self-signed certificate, run:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout kibana.key -out kibana.crt

Or, to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for a CA, run:

openssl req -newkey rsa:4096-nodes -keyout kibana.key -out kibana.csr

Fill in the prompts. Watch out for Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR domain name), which is the IP address or domain name that you will be hosting Kibana on. it is the most important field.

If you generated a CSR, remove the CSR after you have your certs

rm -f kibana.csr

Move the keys into place and secure them:

cd
sudo mv ssl /etc/nginx
sudo chown -R root:www-data /etc/nginx/ssl
sudo chmod -R u=rX,g=rX,o= /etc/nginx/ssl

Disable the default nginx configuration:

sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Create the web server configuration

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/kibana

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/kibana.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/kibana.key;
    ssl_session_timeout 1d;
    ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:50m;
    ssl_session_tickets off;


    # modern configuration. tweak to your needs.
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.2;
    ssl_ciphers 'ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256';
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    # Uncomment this next line if you are using a signed, trusted cert
    #add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubdomains; preload";
    add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options nosniff;
    auth_basic "Login required";
    auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/htpasswd;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:5601;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    }
}

server {
    listen 80;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

Enable the nginx configuration for Kibana:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/kibana /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/kibana

Add a user to basic authentication:

sudo htpasswd -c /etc/nginx/htpasswd exampleuser

Where exampleuser is the name of the user you want to add.

Secure the permissions of the httpasswd file:

sudo chown root:www-data /etc/nginx/htpasswd
sudo chmod u=rw,g=r,o= /etc/nginx/htpasswd

Restart nginx:

sudo service nginx restart

Now that Elasticsearch is up and running, use parsedmarc to send data to it.

Download (right click the link and click save as) export.ndjson.

Import export.ndjson the Saved Objects tab of the Stack management page of Kibana.

It will give you the option to overwrite existing saved dashboards or visualizations, which could be used to restore them if you or someone else breaks them, as there are no permissions/access controls in Kibana without the commercial X-Pack.

:align: center
:alt: A screenshot of setting the Saved Objects Stack management UI in Kibana
:target: _static/screenshots/saved-objects.png

:align: center
:alt: A screenshot of the overwrite conformation prompt
:target: _static/screenshots/confirm-overwrite.png

Upgrading Kibana index patterns

parsedmarc 5.0.0 makes some changes to the way data is indexed in Elasticsearch. if you are upgrading from a previous release of parsedmarc, you need to complete the following steps to replace the Kibana index patterns with versions that match the upgraded indexes:

1. Login in to Kibana, and click on Management
2. Under Kibana, click on Saved Objects
3. Check the checkboxes for the dmarc_aggregate and dmarc_forensic index patterns
4. Click Delete
5. Click Delete on the conformation message
6. Download (right click the link and click save as) the latest version of export.ndjson
7. Import export.ndjson by clicking Import from the Kibana Saved Objects page

Records retention

Starting in version 5.0.0, parsedmarc stores data in a separate index for each day to make it easy to comply with records retention regulations such as GDPR. For fore information, check out the Elastic guide to managing time-based indexes efficiently.

Splunk

Starting in version 4.3.0 parsedmarc supports sending aggregate and/or forensic DMARC data to a Splunk HTTP Event collector (HEC).

The project repository contains XML files for premade Splunk dashboards for aggregate and forensic DMARC reports.

Copy and paste the contents of each file into a separate Splunk dashboard XML editor.

:::{warning} Change all occurrences of index="email" in the XML to match your own index name. :::

The Splunk dashboards display the same content and layout as the Kibana dashboards, although the Kibana dashboards have slightly easier and more flexible filtering options.

Running parsedmarc as a systemd service

Use systemd to run parsedmarc as a service and process reports as they arrive.

Protect the parsedmarc configuration file from prying eyes

sudo chown root:parsedmarc /etc/parsedmarc.ini
sudo chmod u=rw,g=r,o= /etc/parsedmarc.ini

Create the service configuration file

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/parsedmarc.service

[Unit]
Description=parsedmarc mailbox watcher
Documentation=https://domainaware.github.io/parsedmarc/
Wants=network-online.target
After=network.target network-online.target elasticsearch.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/opt/parsedmarc/venv/bin/parsedmarc -c /etc/parsedmarc.ini
User=parsedmarc
Group=parsedmarc
Restart=always
RestartSec=5m

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then, enable the service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable parsedmarc.service
sudo service parsedmarc restart

:::{note} You must also run the above commands whenever you edit parsedmarc.service. :::

:::{warning} Always restart the service every time you upgrade to a new version of parsedmarc:

sudo service parsedmarc restart

:::

To check the status of the service, run:

service parsedmarc status

:::{note} In the event of a crash, systemd will restart the service after 10 minutes, but the service parsedmarc status command will only show the logs for the current process. To vew the logs for previous runs as well as the current process (newest to oldest), run:

journalctl -u parsedmarc.service -r

:::

Using the Kibana dashboards

The Kibana DMARC dashboards are a human-friendly way to understand the results from incoming DMARC reports.

:::{note} The default dashboard is DMARC Summary. To switch between dashboards, click on the Dashboard link in the left side menu of Kibana. :::

DMARC Summary

As the name suggests, this dashboard is the best place to start reviewing your aggregate DMARC data.

Across the top of the dashboard, three pie charts display the percentage of alignment pass/fail for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Clicking on any chart segment will filter for that value.

:::{note} Messages should not be considered malicious just because they failed to pass DMARC; especially if you have just started collecting data. It may be a legitimate service that needs SPF and DKIM configured correctly. :::

Start by filtering the results to only show failed DKIM alignment. While DMARC passes if a message passes SPF or DKIM alignment, only DKIM alignment remains valid when a message is forwarded without changing the from address, which is often caused by a mailbox forwarding rule. This is because DKIM signatures are part of the message headers, whereas SPF relies on SMTP session headers.

Underneath the pie charts. you can see graphs of DMARC passage and message disposition over time.

Under the graphs you will find the most useful data tables on the dashboard. On the left, there is a list of organizations that are sending you DMARC reports. In the center, there is a list of sending servers grouped by the base domain in their reverse DNS. On the right, there is a list of email from domains, sorted by message volume.

By hovering your mouse over a data table value and using the magnifying glass icons, you can filter on our filter out different values. Start by looking at the Message Sources by Reverse DNS table. Find a sender that you recognize, such as an email marketing service, hover over it, and click on the plus (+) magnifying glass icon, to add a filter that only shows results for that sender. Now, look at the Message From Header table to the right. That shows you the domains that a sender is sending as, which might tell you which brand/business is using a particular service. With that information, you can contact them and have them set up DKIM.

:::{note} If you have a lot of B2C customers, you may see a high volume of emails as your domains coming from consumer email services, such as Google/Gmail and Yahoo! This occurs when customers have mailbox rules in place that forward emails from an old account to a new account, which is why DKIM authentication is so important, as mentioned earlier. Similar patterns may be observed with businesses who send from reverse DNS addressees of parent, subsidiary, and outdated brands. :::

Further down the dashboard, you can filter by source country or source IP address.

Tables showing SPF and DKIM alignment details are located under the IP address table.

:::{note} Previously, the alignment tables were included in a separate dashboard called DMARC Alignment Failures. That dashboard has been consolidated into the DMARC Summary dashboard. To view failures only, use the pie chart. :::

Any other filters work the same way. You can also add your own custom temporary filters by clicking on Add Filter at the upper right of the page.

DMARC Forensic Samples

The DMARC Forensic Samples dashboard contains information on DMARC forensic reports (also known as failure reports or ruf reports). These reports contain samples of emails that have failed to pass DMARC.

:::{note} Most recipients do not send forensic/failure/ruf reports at all to avoid privacy leaks. Some recipients (notably Chinese webmail services) will only supply the headers of sample emails. Very few provide the entire email. :::

DMARC Alignment Guide

DMARC ensures that SPF and DKM authentication mechanisms actually authenticate against the same domain that the end user sees.

A message passes a DMARC check by passing DKIM or SPF, as long as the related indicators are also in alignment.

+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
|                       | **DKIM**              | **SPF**               |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| **Passing**           | The signature in the  | The mail server's IP  |
|                       | DKIM header is        | address is listed in  |
|                       | validated using a     | the SPF record of the |
|                       | public key that is    | domain in the SMTP    |
|                       | published as a DNS    | envelope's mail from  |
|                       | record of the domain  | header                |
|                       | name specified in the |                       |
|                       | signature             |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| **Alignment**         | The signing domain    | The domain in the     |
|                       | aligns with the       | SMTP envelope's mail  |
|                       | domain in the         | from header aligns    |
|                       | message's from header | with the domain in    |
|                       |                       | the message's from    |
|                       |                       | header                |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+

What if a sender won't support DKIM/DMARC?

1. Some vendors don't know about DMARC yet; ask about SPF and DKIM/email authentication.
2. Check if they can send through your email relays instead of theirs.
3. Do they really need to spoof your domain? Why not use the display name instead?
4. Worst case, have that vendor send email as a specific subdomain of your domain (e.g. noreply@news.example.com), and then create separate SPF and DMARC records on news.example.com, and set p=none in that DMARC record.

:::{warning} Do not alter the p or sp values of the DMARC record on the Top-Level Domain (TLD) – that would leave you vulnerable to spoofing of your TLD and/or any subdomain. :::

What about mailing lists?

When you deploy DMARC on your domain, you might find that messages relayed by mailing lists are failing DMARC, most likely because the mailing list is spoofing your from address, and modifying the subject, footer, or other part of the message, thereby breaking the DKIM signature.

Mailing list list best practices

Ideally, a mailing list should forward messages without altering the headers or body content at all. Joe Nelson does a fantastic job of explaining exactly what mailing lists should and shouldn't do to be fully DMARC compliant. Rather than repeat his fine work, here's a summary:

Do

• Retain headers from the original message

• Add RFC 2369 List-Unsubscribe headers to outgoing messages, instead of adding unsubscribe links to the body

List-Unsubscribe: https://list.example.com/unsubscribe-link

• Add RFC 2919 List-Id headers instead of modifying the subject

  List-Id: Example Mailing List <list.example.com>

Modern mail clients and webmail services generate unsubscribe buttons based on these headers.

Do not

• Remove or modify any existing headers from the original message, including From, Date, Subject, etc.
• Add to or remove content from the message body, including traditional disclaimers and unsubscribe footers

In addition to complying with DMARC, this configuration ensures that Reply and Reply All actions work like they would with any email message. Reply replies to the message sender, and Reply All replies to the sender and the list.

Even without a subject prefix or body footer, mailing list users can still tell that a message came from the mailing list, because the message was sent to the mailing list post address, and not their email address.

Configuration steps for common mailing list platforms are listed below.

Mailman 2

Navigate to General Settings, and configure the settings below

============================ ==========
**Setting**                  **Value**
**subject_prefix**
**from_is_list**             No
**first_strip_reply_to**     No
**reply_goes_to_list**       Poster
**include_rfc2369_headers**  Yes
**include_list_post_header** Yes
**include_sender_header**    No
============================ ==========

Navigate to Non-digest options, and configure the settings below

=================== ==========
**Setting**         **Value**
**msg_header**
**msg_footer**
**scrub_nondigest**  No
=================== ==========

Navigate to Privacy Options> Sending Filters, and configure the settings below

====================================== ==========
**Setting**                            **Value**
**dmarc_moderation_action**            Accept
**dmarc_quarantine_moderation_action** Yes
**dmarc_none_moderation_action**       Yes
====================================== ==========

Mailman 3

Navigate to Settings> List Identity

Make Subject prefix blank.

Navigate to Settings> Alter Messages

Configure the settings below

====================================== ==========
**Setting**                            **Value**
**Convert html to plaintext**          No
**Include RFC2369 headers**            Yes
**Include the list post header**       Yes
**Explicit reply-to address**
**First strip replyto**                 No
**Reply goes to list**                 No munging
====================================== ==========

Navigate to Settings> DMARC Mitigation

Configure the settings below

================================== ===============================
**Setting**                            **Value**
**DMARC mitigation action**            No DMARC mitigations
**DMARC mitigate unconditionally** No
================================== ===============================

Create a blank footer template for your mailing list to remove the message footer. Unfortunately, the Postorius mailing list admin UI will not allow you to create an empty template, so you'll have to create one using the system's command line instead, for example:

touch var/templates/lists/list.example.com/en/list:member:regular:footer

Where list.example.com the list ID, and en is the language.

Then restart mailman core.

Workarounds

If a mailing list must go against best practices and modify the message (e.g. to add a required legal footer), the mailing list administrator must configure the list to replace the From address of the message (also known as munging) with the address of the mailing list, so they no longer spoof email addresses with domains protected by DMARC.

Configuration steps for common mailing list platforms are listed below.

Mailman 2

Navigate to Privacy Options> Sending Filters, and configure the settings below

====================================== ==========
**Setting**                            **Value**
**dmarc_moderation_action**            Munge From
**dmarc_quarantine_moderation_action** Yes
**dmarc_none_moderation_action**       Yes
====================================== ==========

:::{note} Message wrapping could be used as the DMARC mitigation action instead. In that case, the original message is added as an attachment to the mailing list message, but that could interfere with inbox searching, or mobile clients.

On the other hand, replacing the From address might cause users to accidentally reply to the entire list, when they only intended to reply to the original sender.

Choose the option that best fits your community. :::

Mailman 3

In the DMARC Mitigations tab of the Settings page, configure the settings below

================================== ===============================
**Setting**                            **Value**
**DMARC mitigation action**            Replace From: with list address
**DMARC mitigate unconditionally** No
================================== ===============================

:::{note} Message wrapping could be used as the DMARC mitigation action instead. In that case, the original message is added as an attachment to the mailing list message, but that could interfere with inbox searching, or mobile clients.

On the other hand, replacing the From address might cause users to accidentally reply to the entire list, when they only intended to reply to the original sender. :::

LISTSERV

LISTSERV 16.0-2017a and higher will rewrite the From header for domains that enforce with a DMARC quarantine or reject policy.

Some additional steps are needed for Linux hosts.

API

.. automodule:: parsedmarc
   :members:

parsedmarc.elastic

.. automodule:: parsedmarc.elastic
   :members:

:caption: 'Contents:'
:maxdepth: 2

parsedmarc.splunk

.. automodule:: parsedmarc.splunk
   :members:

:caption: 'Contents:'
:maxdepth: 2

parsedmarc.utils

.. automodule:: parsedmarc.utils
   :members:

:caption: 'Contents:'
:maxdepth: 2

Indices and tables

• {ref}genindex
• {ref}modindex
• {ref}search