Ensuring Helpdesk email deliverability: How to overcome DMARC challenges

Email verification tightening

One of the main features of Helpdesk is email communication with your clients via tickets in Easy Redmine. The part concerning email communication on Easy Cloud applications is managed by Easy Software's SMTP servers. This is where a conflict may arise...

A popular email validation mechanism called DMARC, is being widely implemented in many companies and email services (rightly so). This mechanism checks (among others) whether the incoming email is not spoofed. Some Helpdesk features use mail spoofing (not for spamming, but for regular communication with your clients).

Example of overcoming DMARC challenges

The application runs on Easy Cloud, http://mycompany.easyredmine.com. This Cloud application uses an Easy SMTP server for mail notifications smtp2.easyredmine.com. There is a user in the application who works as a support agent - marky.mark@mycompany.com. Helpdesk is configured the following way:

Marky is going to write a message to a customer via Helpdesk. Based on the setting above, he is automatically entered as the sender.

Julia's receiving email server has DMARC verification. It compares the SMTP server (smtp2.easyredmine.com) and the proclaimed mail sender (marky.mark@mycompany.com). Since these two domains are different, the email is considered unsafe, DMARC blocks the email before it reaches Julia (and she is left without an answer).

What does this mean? Free email services, such as Gmail, already have DMARC enabled. Also, more and more companies gradually implement DMARC. As a result, some emails from your Easy Redmine Helpdesk on the Cloud may not reach your clients.

How to solve it on Easy Cloud

There are quick solutions and long-term ones.

1. Quickest - Change Helpdesk setting

Go to More >> Help desk >> Help desk settings and change mail sender to "Default from mail notification"

Then, go to Administration >> Settings >> Email notifications - Notification email address (FROM). The address should be in form @notifications.easysoftware.com. If you have already changed notification address to a custom domain, move on to the next solution.

2. Simple and stable - configure Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

Adding via SPF is the most effective solution in terms of effort and reward. We have already described it in an article providing information about email notifications from the Cloud.

As per our example above, you would add to your SPF record:

include:spf.mailing.easy.cz

This practically allows Easy Cloud SMTP to put your domain as a sender of emails without being considered suspicious. As a result DMARC of your client Julia (from our example) will accept the email from Helpdesk (Marky).

3. Ultimate solution - own SMTP

If your Cloud application uses your SMTP server, there will be no conflict in the allowed domains. It would help to have all of them permitted when you use a set of multiple domains.

Owning SMTP on Easy Cloud is achievable, but it is the most complicated of the available solutions. It may have some limitations, e.g., automatic application update delivery.

How to solve it on server solution (on-premises)

To sum up, the solution on your server already requires you to configure your own SMTP. Therefore, you have most likely already avoided this problem. In this case, you may want to verify your SPF records that all your relevant domains are allowed.

Conclusion

Due to ever-tightening security standards in the IT sector, there are significant implications for Easy applications, particularly in email communication via the Helpdesk on Easy Redmine Cloud. One critical aspect is managing email communication on Easy Cloud applications through Easy Software's SMTP servers, which can lead to conflicts. A key mechanism, DMARC, is increasingly being adopted by companies and email services to validate emails and prevent spoofing, ensuring the authenticity of incoming emails. 

Several solutions are available to address DMARC-related email delivery issues on Easy Cloud. The quickest fix involves adjusting Helpdesk settings to change the mail sender and configuring the notification email address accordingly. A more stable solution is to implement the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) by updating SPF records to include the Easy Cloud SMTP server domain, allowing emails to be accepted by DMARC systems. For a more comprehensive approach, using your own SMTP server on Easy Cloud can eliminate domain conflicts and ensure smooth email delivery, albeit with added complexity and potential limitations like automatic application update delivery challenges.