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Why DMARC fails even when SPF and DKIM pass: the role of domain alignment

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A common situation after moving a DMARC policy beyond p=none is a message where SPF and DKIM both pass yet DMARC still fails. DMARC requires that at least one of these checks passes for the same domain shown in the visible From: header, a requirement known as alignment. Relaxed alignment, the default, accepts subdomains that share the organisational domain, while strict mode demands an exact match. Third-party services such as invoicing tools, CRMs and newsletter platforms often sign with their own domains, which causes this failure, and enabling custom domain authentication with the vendor usually resolves it. Forwarding and DKIM selector or key rotation problems can also break alignment, so administrators should review DMARC aggregate reports regularly and ramp enforcement gradually.

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