Amazon SES e-mails ending in Yahoo & Hotmail Spam folders, even though SPF and SenderID and DKIM are set correctly
This is incredibly frustrating. My Amazon SES e-mails are ending in Yahoo & Hotmail Spam folders, even though my SPF, SenderID, and DKIM are setup correctly. Since this particular site requires users to confirm their e-mail addresses, I'm losing over 50% of new registrations since using Amazon SES and need to resolve this urgently.
Here are my SPF and SenderID records (they include e-mail services from Google, Rackspace, and Amazon):
v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com include:emailsrvr.com include:amazonses.com ~all
spf2.0/pra include:_spf.google.com include:emailsrvr.com include:amazonses.com ~all
I host this particular domain with GoDaddy and it seems you do NOT need to use quotes (") to surround the SPF and SenderID records. (In fact, when I tried it with quotes, neither the Kitterman nor the MXtoolbox tools could find the SPF records, and when I removed the quotes, both were located by both services.)
However, even though I am using the SPF and SenderID records as recommended by Amazon themselves, I sent a test e-mail to Port25's authentication verifier service, and although DKIM passed, it seems that both the SPF and SenderID records have permerrors, and it seems those errors are on Amazon's end for having "multiple records" (the Kitterman tool fails with the same reason "Results - PermError SPF Permanent Error: Two or more type TXT spf records found."). Here are the results from Port25's service:
This message is an automatic response from Port25's authentication verifier service at verifier.port25.com. The service allows email senders to perform a simple check of various sender authentication mechanisms. It is provided free of charge, in the hope that it is useful to the email community. While it is not officially supported, we welcome any feedback you may have at <[email protected]>.
This message is an automatic response from Port25's authentication verifier
service at verifier.port25.com. The service allows email senders to perform
a simple check of various sender authentication mechanisms. It is provided
free of charge, in the hope that it is useful to the email community. While
it is not officially supported, we welcome any feedback you may have at
<[email protected]>.
Thank you for using the verifier,
The Port25 Solutions, Inc. team
==========================================================
Summary of Results
==========================================================
SPF check: permerror
DomainKeys check: neutral
DKIM check: pass
Sender-ID check: permerror
SpamAssassin check: ham
==========================================================
Details:
==========================================================
HELO hostname: a192-142.smtp-out.amazonses.com
Source IP: 199.255.192.142
mail-from: [email protected]
----------------------------------------------------------
SPF check details:
----------------------------------------------------------
Result: permerror (multiple SPF records)
ID(s) verified: [email protected]
DNS record(s):
amazonses.com. SPF (no records)
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:199.255.192.0/22 ip4:199.127.232.0/22 ~all"
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "spf2.0/pra ip4:199.255.192.0/22 ip4:199.127.232.0/22 ~all"
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:199.255.192.0/22 ip4:199.127.232.0/22 54.240.0.0/18 ~all"
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "spf2.0/pra ip4:199.255.192.0/22 ip4:199.127.232.0/22 54.240.0.0/18 ~all"
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "mailru-verification: 71asdf5de908d6ed"
----------------------------------------------------------
DomainKeys check details:
----------------------------------------------------------
Result: neutral (message not signed)
ID(s) verified: [email protected]
DNS record(s):
----------------------------------------------------------
DKIM check details:
----------------------------------------------------------
Result: pass (matches From: [email protected])
NOTE: DKIM checking has been performed based on the latest DKIM specs
(RFC 4871 or draft-ietf-dkim-base-10) and verification may fail for
older versions. If you are using Port25's PowerMTA, you need to use
version 3.2r11 or later to get a compatible version of DKIM.
----------------------------------------------------------
Sender-ID check details:
----------------------------------------------------------
Result: permerror (multiple SPF records with 'pra' scope)
ID(s) verified: [email protected]
DNS record(s):
_spf.google.com. SPF (no records)
_spf.google.com. 300 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:216.239.32.0/19 ip4:64.233.160.0/19 ip4:66.249.80.0/20 ip4:72.14.192.0/18 ip4:209.85.128.0/17 ip4:66.102.0.0/20 ip4:74.125.0.0/16 ip4:64.18.0.0/20 ip4:207.126.144.0/20 ip4:173.194.0.0/16 ?all"
emailsrvr.com. SPF (no records)
emailsrvr.com. 28800 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:207.97.245.0/24 ip4:207.97.227.208/28 ip4:67.192.241.0/24 ip4:98.129.184.0/23 ip4:72.4.117.0/27 ip4:72.32.49.0/24 ip4:72.32.252.0/24 ip4:72.32.253.0/24 ip4:207.97.200.40 ip4:173.203.2.0/25 ip4:173.203.6.0/23 ip4:50.57.0.0/27 ~all"
amazonses.com. SPF (no records)
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:199.255.192.0/22 ip4:199.127.232.0/22 ~all"
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "spf2.0/pra ip4:199.255.192.0/22 ip4:199.127.232.0/22 ~all"
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:199.255.192.0/22 ip4:199.127.232.0/22 54.240.0.0/18 ~all"
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "spf2.0/pra ip4:199.255.192.0/22 ip4:199.127.232.0/22 54.240.0.0/18 ~all"
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "mailru-verification: 71asdf5de908d6ed"
----------------------------------------------------------
SpamAssassin check details:
----------------------------------------------------------
SpamAssassin v3.3.1 (2010-03-16)
Result: ham (-2.7 points, 5.0 required)
pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
0.0 SINGLE_HEADER_2K A single header contains 2K-3K characters
-0.7 RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW RBL: Sender listed at http://www.dnswl.org/, low
trust
[199.255.192.142 listed in list.dnswl.org]
-0.0 T_RP_MATCHES_RCVD Envelope sender domain matches handover relay
domain
-1.9 BAYES_00 BODY: Bayes spam probability is 0 to 1%
[score: 0.0000]
-0.1 DKIM_VALID_AU Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from author's
domain
0.1 DKIM_SIGNED Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily valid
-0.1 DKIM_VALID Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature
==========================================================
Explanation of the possible results (from RFC 5451)
==========================================================
SPF and Sender-ID Results
=========================
"none"
No policy records were published at the sender's DNS domain.
"neutral"
The sender's ADMD has asserted that it cannot or does not
want to assert whether or not the sending IP address is authorized
to send mail using the sender's DNS domain.
"pass"
The client is authorized by the sender's ADMD to inject or
relay mail on behalf of the sender's DNS domain.
"policy"
The client is authorized to inject or relay mail on behalf
of the sender's DNS domain according to the authentication
method's algorithm, but local policy dictates that the result is
unacceptable.
"fail"
This client is explicitly not authorized to inject or
relay mail using the sender's DNS domain.
"softfail"
The sender's ADMD believes the client was not authorized
to inject or relay mail using the sender's DNS domain, but is
unwilling to make a strong assertion to that effect.
"temperror"
The message could not be verified due to some error that
is likely transient in nature, such as a temporary inability to
retrieve a policy record from DNS. A later attempt may produce a
final result.
"permerror"
The message could not be verified due to some error that
is unrecoverable, such as a required header field being absent or
a syntax error in a retrieved DNS TXT record. A later attempt is
unlikely to produce a final result.
DKIM and DomainKeys Results
===========================
"none"
The message was not signed.
"pass"
The message was signed, the signature or signatures were
acceptable to the verifier, and the signature(s) passed
verification tests.
"fail"
The message was signed and the signature or signatures were
acceptable to the verifier, but they failed the verification
test(s).
"policy"
The message was signed but the signature or signatures were
not acceptable to the verifier.
"neutral"
The message was signed but the signature or signatures
contained syntax errors or were not otherwise able to be
processed. This result SHOULD also be used for other
failures not covered elsewhere in this list.
"temperror"
The message could not be verified due to some error that
is likely transient in nature, such as a temporary inability
to retrieve a public key. A later attempt may produce a
final result.
"permerror"
The message could not be verified due to some error that
is unrecoverable, such as a required header field being
absent. A later attempt is unlikely to produce a final result.
==========================================================
Original Email
==========================================================
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from a192-142.smtp-out.amazonses.com (199.255.192.142) by verifier.port25.com id asdf for <[email protected]>; Sat, 1 Sep 2012 09:24:25 -0400 (envelope-from <[email protected]>)
Authentication-Results: verifier.port25.com; spf=permerror (multiple SPF records) [email protected]
Authentication-Results: verifier.port25.com; domainkeys=neutral (message not signed) [email protected]
Authentication-Results: verifier.port25.com; dkim=pass (matches From: [email protected]) header.d=mysite.com
Authentication-Results: verifier.port25.com; sender-id=permerror (multiple SPF records with 'pra' scope) [email protected]
Return-Path: [email protected]
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2012 13:24:08 +0000
Subject: Confirm your E-mail
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-SES-Outgoing: 199.255.192.142
Hello testuser,
Confirm your e-mail by clicking this li=
nk:
http://mysite.com/confirmemail/aaasdf7798e
If you ar=
e having problems confirming, enter the code below.
Code: aaasdf7798e
Thanks!
The mysite.com Team
What can I do to fix this urgent issue so that my e-mails via Amazon SES pass both SPF and SenderID and end up in my Yahoo and Hotmail users' Inboxes? I've tried absolutely everything and nothing seems to work. Thanks.
This tool is correct, a domain is only allowed to have one TXT/SPF record.
There is no way to fix this correctly for you, you need to contact Amazon to fix their records.
These need to be merged (and similar for the v=spf2):
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:199.255.192.0/22 ip4:199.127.232.0/22 ~all"
amazonses.com. 900 IN TXT "v=spf1 ip4:199.255.192.0/22 ip4:199.127.232.0/22 54.240.0.0/18 ~all"
Note that the 54.240.0.0/18 part is also wrong, should be ip4:54.240.0.0/18.
You can of course remove your include:amazonses.com and add the IP ranges manually.
But if those ranges change, it will fail again.