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If your organization’s legitimate emails are bouncing or landing in Spam folders, it could be due to an overloaded SPF record. At Sendmarc, we offer a simple Sender Policy Framework (SPF) flattening solution that easily fixes this. We monitor your business’s SPF record and ensure it stays within the DNS lookup limit, reducing failures and improving email deliverability.
With SPF flattening, your company can:
We provide advanced protection to:
Email is essential to business communication, but it’s also a primary target for cybercriminals. One of the most effective ways to protect a domain from spoofing and phishing is by implementing SPF.
But as more marketing tools and third-party platforms are added, SPF records can become cluttered, sometimes exceeding technical limits and causing legitimate emails to be rejected or land in Spam.
SPF flattening solves this by replacing every DNS lookup with its resolved IP addresses. This reduces the number of DNS lookups required for SPF checks, helping your organization stay within the strict 10-lookup limit.
Exceeding this limit leads to SPF failures, which impact deliverability and open the door to email-based threats. Flattening keeps your business’s SPF record clean, compliant, and optimized for secure delivery. Exceeding the limit also introduces security risks, as an overloaded SPF record is often ignored entirely by recipient servers, meaning the signal that this IP should not be sending on your domain’s behalf is ignored, too.
It helps to know how SPF records function to understand flattening. An SPF record is a DNS TXT entry that authorizes which email servers can send messages on behalf of your company’s domain by allowing the domain owner to specify exactly which IP addresses recipients can expect legitimate email to come from.
Each time your organization adds a platform like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365/Entra, CRMs, and email marketing tools, it uses include statements to authorize its email servers. Each of these statements triggers a DNS lookup.
Note: include isn’t the only mechanism available to domain owners, but it’s one of the most popular. Not all SPF mechanisms generate a lookup, but due to its wide use, includes consume the most lookups.
The problem? The SPF specification (RFC 7208) sets a strict 10-lookup limit. Go over it, and recipient servers might return a Permanent Error (PermError), ultimately rejecting or flagging your business’s emails.
SPF flattening addresses this issue by resolving each include into a direct IP list, publishing a simplified version of your company’s SPF record. This flattened record is faster, leaner, and far less likely to break.
A flattened SPF record helps your business’s legitimate emails pass authentication checks and reach the inbox instead of the Spam folder. By staying within the SPF lookup limit, your company avoids PermError failures that block important messages.
Flattening your organization’s SPF record reduces the risk of domain spoofing and impersonation. When your business’s record is optimized and up to date, it’s significantly harder for attackers to send phishing emails that appear to come from it.
SPF flattening keeps your company compliant with industry requirements, specifically RFC 7208 Section 4.6.4. It shows customers and partners that your organization takes email security seriously and follows best practices to protect its recipients.
Sendmarc automatically monitors your business’s SPF record to ensure the number of DNS lookups doesn’t exceed 10. We resolve lookups in real time, keeping your company’s SPF record valid, current, and fully optimized.
Our flattening feature simplifies your organization’s SPF record by reducing nested include mechanisms, resolving all lookups, and publishing the most efficient version possible. This reduces errors, shortens the SPF record, and ensures full compliance.
No need for manual DNS editing or deep technical knowledge. Sendmarc makes SPF flattening simple to activate – just a few clicks in our platform, and your organization’s record is fully optimized.
Sendmarc’s flattening solution is ideal for businesses of all sizes. Whether it be a small company or a global organization, our platform makes SPF management simple, secure, and effective.
Get started with Sendmarc’s solution today!
Email authentication is essential for protecting brands, customers, and operations. As companies adopt more SaaS tools, cloud services, and third-party providers, SPF records naturally become more complex. Without proper management, this complexity can lead to technical failures and open the door to cyberthreats.
SPF flattening is the key to overcoming these challenges. By ensuring its SPF record stays within the lookup limit, your organization:
include mechanisms in your business’s SPF record with their fully resolved IP addresses. If your company flattens its SPF record, it reduces the number of DNS lookups required during email authentication and stays within the DNS lookup limit. The SPF lookup limit is a restriction defined by RFC 7208 that allows a maximum of 10 DNS lookups per SPF check. If your organization’s SPF record exceeds this limit, email authentication will fail with a Permanent Error (PermError).
Yes, SPF flattening helps manage the SPF lookup limit by changing include mechanisms into direct IP addresses, reducing the number of DNS lookups required, and ensuring your business’s SPF record remains within the 10-lookup limit.
SPF flattening solves multiple problems by reducing the complexity of SPF records. It prevents SPF-related authentication failures, improves email deliverability, ensures compliance with email authentication standards, and protects your company’s domain from spoofing and phishing attacks.
With Sendmarc’s automated SPF flattening solution, your organization can take control of its email authentication, enhance deliverability, and protect its brand reputation.
Ready to optimize your business’s SPF record and boost email security?