DMARC Becomes Official RFC Standard in 2026, Removing Key 'pct' Tag
On 19 May 2026, DMARC was elevated to an IETF Standards Track specification under RFC 9989, replacing the decade-old informational RFC 7489. The update removes the 'pct' tag, which allowed domain owners to apply email policies to only a percentage of failing messages, meaning outdated records referencing it may now enforce full policy unintentionally. A new 't' tag has been introduced as a cleaner testing mechanism, applying one step below the published policy while administrators monitor reports. RFC 9989 also advises against using p=reject for domains where real users send mail, citing risks of legitimate messages being bounced by mailing lists and forwarders. Additionally, the spec replaces Public Suffix List-based domain discovery with a DNS Tree Walk method and carries over the 'np' tag for setting policies on non-existent subdomains.
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