DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) lets an organization take responsibility for a message while it is in transit.  The organization is a handler of the message, either as its originator or as an intermediary. Their reputation is the basis for evaluating whether to trust the message for delivery. Technically DKIM provides a method for validating a domain name identity that is associated with a message through cryptographic authentication.

Popular links:

The DKIM.org website is hosted by Mutual Internet Practices Association (MIPA).

The first version of DKIM synthesized and enhanced Yahoo!'s DomanKeys and Cisco's Identified Internet Mail specifications. It was the result of a year-long collaboration among numerous industry players, during 2005, to develop an open-standard e-mail authentication specification. Participants included Alt-N Technologies, AOL, Brandenburg InternetWorking, Cisco, EarthLink, IBM, Microsoft, PGP Corporation, Sendmail, StrongMail Systems, Tumbleweed, VeriSign and Yahoo!. The team produced the initial specification and several implementations. It then submitted the work to the IETF for further enhancement and formal standardization. The IETF has now approved the revised specification as a Proposed Standard and published it as RFC 4871. The working group has then approved a correction to the stanadard, as an Errata Entry.

(Also see: previous news, milestones and events )

DKIM In the News

• DKIM for Discussion Lists, J.D. Falk  »  June 15, 2009

• DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Grows Significantly  »  June 15, 2009

• Goodmail Systems Announces DKIM-Based CertifiedEmail  »  April 23, 2009

• Fighting phishing with eBay and PayPal, Google  »  January 8, 2009

Press Contacts

A number of organizations have offered Press Contacts for matters relating to DKIM.

The current specifications are recommended for immediate use:

• DKIM Service Overview, RFC 5585 
• DKIM Signatures, IETF Proposed Standard, RFC 4871 » html, pdf, txt
  • RFC 4871 DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures -- Update ,  RFC 5672
• DKIM Author Domain Signing Practices (ADSP)
  »  RFC 5617

For specifications under development, see Enhancement.

See this list of Organizations Providing Software, Hardware or Services with DKIM.

Lars Eggert maintains a tally of the DKIM adoption rate.

Consulting

See this list of Consulting Services for assisting with DKIM development or deployment and use

An operations-related mailing list is available: dkim-ops.

The IETF has chartered the DKIM Working Group, seeking refinement and standardization of the DKIM specifications.

Related Work

• Reporting of DKIM Verification Failures, draft-kucherawy-dkim-reporting » txt

• Abuse Feedback Reporting Format (ARF) » home

• Message Header Field for Indicating Message Authentication Status (Auth-Results) » txt » mailing list

• Vouch By Reference (VBR) » home

Yahoo's DomainKeys resulted in an Intellectual Property Rights claim concerning that applies to the DKIM specification.