DNS & Glossary

TXT record

A flexible text record that powers email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and domain-ownership verification for countless services.

What it stores

A TXT record holds free-form text. In practice it carries structured policies: SPF sender lists, DKIM public keys, DMARC policies, and one-off verification strings for SaaS providers.

ZONE FILE
example.com.        3600 IN TXT "v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all"
_dmarc.example.com. 3600 IN TXT "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:[email protected]"

Why it matters

  • It is the delivery mechanism for the entire email-authentication stack.
  • A malformed TXT record can silently break mail deliverability or a service integration.

Common mistakes

  • Publishing multiple SPF TXT records, which is invalid — a domain may have only one.
  • Exceeding the 255-character per-string limit without correctly splitting the value.

How WebInspect checks this

  • The Network Inspector parses TXT records and validates SPF, DKIM and DMARC configuration.