dmarc.reporting Reviewed July 2026

Quick fix

Create a dedicated mailbox or use a reputable DMARC reporting processor.

What this finding means

SecuTest checks for a syntactically valid `rua` destination. DMARC can enforce without reporting, so absence of `rua` is not a direct bypass; it is an operational detection and rollout weakness.

Interpretation boundary Use the exact evidence in your report. SecuTest reports externally observable conditions; it does not assume ownership, exploitability, compromise, or business intent when those cannot be proven remotely.

Associated attack or threat scenario

Threat type Email abuse visibility gap

How the attack or failure scenario works

Aggregate reports summarize how receivers evaluated SPF, DKIM, alignment, and policy for messages claiming the domain. Without them, spoofing campaigns, forgotten senders, and broken authentication may persist unnoticed. The attack is not created by missing reports; the organization simply has less evidence to detect and remediate it.

Conditions and limitations

  • Receivers generate and send aggregate reports for the domain.
  • No valid `rua` destination is configured or the mailbox cannot process reports.
  • Attackers or broken senders generate traffic that would otherwise appear in the reports.

Why it matters

Security and business impact Without aggregate reporting, the organization loses visibility into legitimate authentication failures and unauthorized use of its domains.

Step-by-step fix

Where to make the change

  • The authoritative DNS zone for the registrable domain.
  • The outbound or inbound mail platform when sender authorization, signing, or routing is involved.
  • The DMARC reporting mailbox or reporting service when aggregate reports are required.

Remediation procedure

  1. Create a dedicated mailbox or use a reputable DMARC reporting processor.
  2. Publish one or more `mailto:` URIs in `rua`, with external-destination authorization where required.
  3. Protect the reporting mailbox, limit access, and define retention because reports contain infrastructure metadata.
  4. Establish a recurring review process for new senders, failure spikes, and enforcement progress.

Commands and configuration examples

Replace example values with the hostname, selector, IP address, port, provider, or policy values shown in your SecuTest evidence. Review every example before production use.

Reporting example
v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc-reports@example.com

External authorization example
example.com._report._dmarc.reports.example.net. 3600 IN TXT "v=DMARC1"

Verify the fix

  1. Query the DMARC record and confirm the `rua` value.
  2. Verify external reporting authorization records when the destination uses another domain.
  3. Confirm XML aggregate reports arrive from major receivers.
  4. Reconcile report sources against the approved sender inventory.
Confirm the externally visible result

After DNS, CDN, certificate, mail, or application propagation completes, run a fresh SecuTest scan and compare the new evidence with the original finding.

Re-scan your domain

Common mistakes

  • Sending reports to an unmonitored personal mailbox.
  • Publishing `rua=reports@example.com` without the required `mailto:` scheme.
  • Collecting reports without assigning ownership for analysis and remediation.

Authoritative references