Getting rid of the via at Gmail

There was a question submitted today about the verification process at Gmail.

even though SPF authentication is passed, a via is added to mail sent from a webserver. The return-path is not the same as the visible from field, but there’s no way for me to change it. Does that mean I won’t be able to get rid of the via?

This actually ties in to some research Steve and I did a few months ago about how and when Gmail is displaying the “via” in their interface. We generated 90+ different emails with various From: addresses, Return-Path: addresses and passing and failing with both SPF and DKIM.
After crunching all the numbers down, I created a table with all the conditions.
All of the conditions we measured
As you can see, there were only a very few conditions that generated the “via” display in the Gmail interface. In cases where there was any domain match between the visible from: and the return path, either the exact domain or a subdomain, there was no “via” displayed, even if authentication failed.
But, when we look at the cases where the domain in the Return-Path is unrelated to the visibly displayed From, then we start to see the cases where Gmail displays the “via.”

Matrix looking at when and what via is displayed
Only when there is a domain mis-match and failing authentication is a via displayed.
So the answer to your question is as long as the webserver is a different domain than the visible From: address Gmail will display a via. You may be able to have no via if you provide no authentication, but Gmail does what it calls “best guess” SPF so even that may not work for you.
 

Related Posts

Gmail and the bulk folder

Earlier this week Gmail announced they were providing reasons for why they delivered a particular mail to the bulk folder. I’m sure a lot of senders are rejoicing over the clear feedback. After all this is exactly what they’ve been asking for “tell us why you’re filtering our mail and we’ll fix it.”
I am not sure, however, that this is going to help the majority of senders seeing mail going to the bulk folder. On the Gmail support pages, they list a number of the explanations they’re be providing.

Read More

Authentication Cheat Sheet

There are a several approaches to authenticating email, and the different authentication methods have a lot of different settings to choose from (sometimes because they’re useful, other times just because they were designed by committee). It’s nice that they have that flexibility for the complex situations that might benefit from them, but almost all the time you just want to choose a good, default authentication approach.
So here’s some short prescriptive advice in no particular order for “how to do email authentication at an ESP well” without the long discussions of alternative approaches and justification of each piece of advice.

Read More

Gmail reports spear phishing attack

No one, it seems, is immune from account compromise attempts. Today Google reported they had identified a systemic campaign to compromise Gmail accounts belonging to “senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists.”
Google offers a number of solutions for users, including the ability to add 2 factor authentication to your Gmail account. I strongly recommend anyone who uses Gmail to do this.
This isn’t a security blog, but email is one of the major vectors used to infect machines. We’ve seen numerous break ins targeting email senders and ESPs, resulting in customer and recipient data being stolen and then used for spam. Everyone who uses email needs to be aware of the risks and maintain their email account integrity. Be careful clicking links in emails. Be careful opening webpages. Keep your antivirus software up to date.
Everyone is a target.
 

Read More