Reviewed by: QuickDMARC Security Team · Email Authentication Specialists ·

DKIM Failure

DKIM failure means the signature could not be validated—missing key, wrong key, modified content, or unsupported algorithms.

Frequent causes

Selector TXT not published, CNAME to ESP broken, body modified in transit (bh= mismatch), or dual-signing confusion during migrations.

Message vs DNS checks

Compare s= and d= from the signature to live DNS. Then validate whether intermediaries altered the signed headers/body.

How QuickDMARC helps

Correlate DKIM fails in aggregate reports with specific sources and selectors.

Frequently asked questions

Does DKIM fail break DMARC always?

DMARC can still pass via aligned SPF.

ARC and DKIM?

Authenticated Received Chain can help some forwarded scenarios; still aim for robust origin signatures.

First tool?

DKIM checker + header analyzer.

Related resources