8. Minimum Implementations

This section describes the minimum implementation requirements for different actors in the DMARC ecosystem.

A DMARC-compliant Mail Receiver MUST be able to do the following:

1. Retrieve and interpret DMARC policy records from DNS.

2. Evaluate DMARC policy by:

   • Performing SPF checks per [SPF].
   • Performing DKIM checks per [DKIM].
   • Evaluating Identifier Alignment as described in Section 3.1.
   • Applying the discovered DMARC policy.

3. Send aggregate reports using the format specified in Section 7.2 to the addresses specified in the "rua" tag of the DMARC policy record.

A DMARC-compliant Mail Receiver SHOULD be able to do the following:

1. Send failure reports as described in Section 7.3 to the addresses specified in the "ruf" tag of the DMARC policy record.

2. Respect the "pct" tag when applying DMARC policy.

A DMARC-compliant Domain Owner MUST be able to do the following:

1. Publish well-formed DMARC policy records in DNS as described in Section 6.

2. Receive and process aggregate reports sent by Mail Receivers.

A DMARC-compliant Domain Owner SHOULD be able to do the following:

1. Deploy SPF and/or DKIM for the domain.

2. Ensure Identifier Alignment between the RFC5322.From domain and the domains authenticated by SPF and/or DKIM.

3. Receive and process failure reports sent by Mail Receivers.

4. Monitor reports and adjust policy based on the feedback received.

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