Email health
Authenticated Received Chain (ARC)
Preserves DKIM/SPF authentication results when mail is forwarded through mailing lists or alias services. The fix for `forwarder breakage`.
What it is
Authenticated Received Chain — RFC 8617 (Experimental). An intermediary (mailing list, alias forwarder, security gateway) signs three header fields — ARC-Authentication-Results, ARC-Message-Signature, ARC-Seal — capturing the auth state it observed. The next hop verifies the chain instead of re-running SPF/DKIM against a forwarder.
Why it matters
Forwarding rewrites headers and strips DKIM body alignment, so legitimate mail through alumni aliases, university lists, or corporate forwarding lands in spam under DMARC `p=reject`. ARC lets receivers trust the original verdict if a known intermediary sealed it.
Who it applies to
Domains operating mailing lists, forwarders, or security gateways — and anyone whose users heavily forward mail.
How WQI scores it
Web Quality Index considers this standard satisfied when the supporting factor passes.
| # | Factor | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | DKIM signing | live |
Related standards
Standards that share factors with this one
Auto-computed from overlapping factor tickets in satisfiedBy, excluding standards already listed under "See also" above. Strong overlap suggests these standards rise and fall together when sites are scored.