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When is SPF checked?

Printed From: LogSat Software
Category: Spam Filter ISP
Forum Name: Spam Filter ISP Support
Forum Description: General support for Spam Filter ISP
URL: https://www.logsat.com/spamfilter/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=3954
Printed Date: 31 July 2025 at 4:43am


Topic: When is SPF checked?
Posted By: Guests
Subject: When is SPF checked?
Date Posted: 09 July 2004 at 12:41pm

Roberto,

Is SPF checked before the whitelist?  I have some domains on the whitelist that have been recently spoofed.  I was hoping that SPF is checked first, that way spoofed email is dropped.

Doug


Replies:
Posted By: Desperado
Date Posted: 09 July 2004 at 3:13pm
I may be mistaken but My understanding is that a white listed entry supercedes any black lists.  This means that anything white listed will go through no matter what.  However, I am not 100% on where the SPF is in the chain of events.
 
Regards,
 
Dan S.
 

Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 09 July 2004 at 3:20pm

Wouldn't it make sense that SPF should be checked first.  After all, if the source is not authenticated, how do you know that it is the person on your whitelist, thus defeating the purpose of the whitelist. 

Doug Soltesz

Posted By: Desperado
Date Posted: 09 July 2004 at 3:37pm

Perhaps, but that is the ultimate danger of a whitelist ... that a Spammer could exploit it.  The whole point of  white listing something or somebody is to get them past the filters because something is otherwise blocking them ... yes?  Again,  I may be wrong on this point.

Dan S.

Posted By: LogSat
Date Posted: 10 July 2004 at 12:06am

Doug,

Dan is correct, whitelists "win" over the blacklists. That is by design and will not likely change.

Scenario. If a domain has an SPF record which prevents a user (Joe) to send email using his own SMTP servers , but one of your users really needs to receive email from Joe, your only solution is to use a whitelist, which will override the SPF filter. WHitelists are the last resort to receive email no matter what the filter. They're powerful, but also dangerous.

Roberto F.
LogSat Software


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