Are DMARC RUA and RUF tags mandatory for compliance and what are their benefits?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 2 Jul 2025
Updated 19 Aug 2025
7 min read
When you set up DMARC for your domain, you'll encounter various tags that define its behavior. Among the most discussed are the RUA and RUF tags. These tags are designed to provide feedback on your email streams, informing you about messages that pass or fail DMARC authentication checks.
Many domain owners wonder if these reporting mechanisms are strictly required for DMARC compliance or if they are merely optional add-ons. The official DMARC specification, outlined in RFC 7489, specifies DMARC as a scalable mechanism for policy expression and reporting. While the reporting aspect is fundamental to its design, the tags themselves have specific requirements.
The purpose of DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) goes beyond just authenticating emails. It's about gaining visibility into how your domain is being used, both legitimately and maliciously. This visibility is primarily delivered through the RUA and RUF reports.
The RUA and RUF tags are crucial components for gaining insight into your email authentication processes. RUA, or Reporting URI for Aggregate Reports, specifies the email address(es) to which aggregate reports are sent. These reports provide a high-level overview of email traffic purporting to be from your domain, indicating how many messages passed or failed SPF and DKIM authentication, and the DMARC policy applied.
RUF, or Reporting URI for Forensic Reports, directs message-level failure reports to designated addresses. Unlike aggregate reports, forensic reports contain more detailed information about individual messages that fail DMARC authentication, including headers, sending IP addresses, and sometimes even redacted message bodies. This level of detail can be invaluable for pinpointing specific spoofing attempts or misconfigurations.
While both tags facilitate DMARC reporting, their practical use differs. RUA reports are generally easier to manage and parse due to their aggregated nature and XML format. RUF reports, on the other hand, can be voluminous and raise privacy concerns, leading many organizations to opt out of receiving them. Understanding what each report offers helps you decide how to configure your DMARC record.
Correctly setting up these tags involves specifying a mailto: prefix before the email address in your DNS record. For example, rua=mailto:dmarc_aggregate@example.com. If you are using a DMARC monitoring service, they will often provide a specific address for these reports.
Are RUA and RUF tags mandatory?
To answer directly, no, DMARC RUA and RUF tags are not technically mandatory for a DMARC record to be considered valid and enforced. A basic DMARC record only requires the v (version) and p (policy) tags to be present. You can indeed publish a DMARC record without any reporting tags, as stated by various email security resources including community forums for email administrators.
However, just because they aren't technically mandatory doesn't mean they're not essential for effective DMARC implementation. Major email service providers like Google and Yahoo, while not explicitly requiring RUA in their DMARC guidelines, strongly recommend its inclusion. Without reporting, you are essentially running your email authentication efforts blind, making it impossible to see the impact of your policy or identify fraudulent activity.
The distinction is critical: compliance (meaning your DMARC record is syntactically valid) doesn't always equate to effective security or optimal deliverability. For a DMARC policy to genuinely protect your brand and improve email deliverability, the insights from RUA reports are indispensable. This is especially true as email providers increasingly push for stricter policies.
Without RUA/RUF reports
No visibility: You won't know which emails are failing authentication or why.
Increased risk: Difficulty detecting and mitigating email spoofing and phishing attacks.
Deliverability issues: Hard to troubleshoot legitimate emails landing in spam folders.
Some organizations, especially those with minimal email sending, might choose to omit these tags. However, for any business that relies on email for communication, marketing, or transactional purposes, skipping RUA and RUF reports means missing out on crucial data needed to optimize email security and deliverability.
The benefits of DMARC reporting
The primary benefit of RUA and RUF tags lies in the visibility they provide. These reports offer a comprehensive view of email authentication results, helping you understand where your emails are going and if they are being correctly authenticated. This information is vital for protecting your domain from abuse and ensuring your legitimate messages reach the inbox.
RUA aggregate reports provide data that helps you:
Monitor email flow: Understand how receiving servers process your domain's emails.
Identify unauthorized senders: Detect third parties sending emails using your domain without authorization.
Troubleshoot issues: Pinpoint SPF or DKIM alignment problems.
Progress DMARC policy: Confidently move from p=none to p=quarantine or p=reject.
RUF forensic reports, while less commonly used due to their verbose nature and potential privacy implications (as they contain parts of the failed messages), can be invaluable for forensic analysis. They can help you investigate specific phishing campaigns targeting your domain by providing raw data on individual fraudulent emails.
Implementing and managing DMARC reports
Setting up DMARC reports effectively is a straightforward process, but it requires careful attention to detail. The BSI guidelines on email authentication suggest designating at least one RUA address. When configuring your DMARC record in your DNS, remember to use the mailto: prefix for the email addresses specified in the rua and ruf tags.
Once reports start flowing in, the real work begins: analyzing them. Raw DMARC reports (especially RUA) are in XML format, which can be challenging to interpret manually. This is why many organizations opt for DMARC monitoring services that parse these reports into user-friendly dashboards, providing actionable insights. These services can help you understand and troubleshoot DMARC reports.
Managing DMARC reports consistently is a best practice. It’s not enough to just enable them; you need to regularly review the data to identify new sending sources, detect potential unauthorized usage of your domain, and adjust your SPF and DKIM records as needed. This ongoing process ensures your DMARC implementation remains effective and aligned with your email sending practices.
Key data from DMARC reports
DMARC reports provide a wealth of information crucial for email security. Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect from each type:
Aggregate Reports (RUA): Daily XML summaries of email traffic for your domain. Include IP addresses, SPF/DKIM authentication results, and policy application (none, quarantine, reject).
Forensic Reports (RUF): Near real-time reports for individual messages that fail DMARC. May contain headers and redacted body content of the failed email, offering deep insights into spoofing attempts.
The path to a stronger email posture
While DMARC RUA and RUF tags are not technically mandatory for simply having a DMARC record, they are highly recommended for any organization serious about email security and deliverability. The reports they provide are the eyes and ears of your DMARC policy, allowing you to monitor email flow, identify threats, and troubleshoot issues proactively. Ignoring them means missing out on the full benefits of DMARC.
In an evolving email landscape where major providers are continuously raising their security requirements, having RUA in place is a crucial step towards future-proofing your domain. By embracing DMARC reporting, you empower yourself to maintain a robust email authentication posture, protect your brand, and ensure your emails reliably reach their intended recipients.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Actively monitor DMARC aggregate (RUA) reports to maintain visibility into email authentication status.
Use RUA reports to help inform your DMARC policy decisions, especially when moving to p=quarantine or p=reject.
Ensure the email addresses in your RUA and RUF tags are consistently monitored and parsed.
Consider third-party services to simplify DMARC report processing and analysis.
Common pitfalls
Implementing DMARC without RUA reports, leading to a lack of visibility into email authentication failures.
Not regularly reviewing DMARC reports, missing critical insights into spoofing attempts or misconfigurations.
Sending RUF (forensic) reports to unmanaged inboxes, resulting in overwhelming volumes of detailed data.
Neglecting to configure the 'mailto:' prefix for RUA and RUF addresses in the DMARC record.
Expert tips
Having RUA is a better 'future proof' configuration for DMARC implementation.
It is entirely possible that major providers like Google and Yahoo may make RUA mandatory at some point.
The reporting component of DMARC (RUA & RUF) is essential for understanding your email authentication. Without it, you are operating blindly.
While RUF is not mandatory, some clients receive plenty of reports that help solve issues.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says Yahoo and Google suggest using RUA, but RUF reports can often be ignored since few providers still send them.
2024-05-28 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says RUA is a good idea for ensuring authentication is correct, which puts you in a good position when 'p=reject' becomes mandatory for bulk mail.
Google and 
Yahoo, while not explicitly requiring RUA in their DMARC guidelines, strongly recommend its inclusion. Without reporting, you are essentially running your email authentication efforts blind, making it impossible to see the impact of your policy or identify fraudulent activity.
