Parse DMARC

Monitor who's sending email on behalf of your domain. Catch spoofing. Stop phishing.

Parse DMARC

Deploy Your Own Instance

Deploy Parse DMARC to your favorite cloud provider with one click:

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Provider	Deploy	Notes
Railway		Recommended for beginners
Render		Free tier available
Koyeb		Global edge deployment. Manually mount /data as volume.
Zeabur		Asia-Pacific optimized
Northflank		Developer-focused

Self-Hosted

Provider	Deploy	Notes
CapRover		Self-hosted PaaS
Coolify		Open-source Heroku alternative
Dokploy		Self-hosted deployment platform
Docker		Run anywhere

Infrastructure

Provider	Deploy	Notes
DigitalOcean Droplet		VM with Packer image

Note: All deployments require IMAP credentials. See Configuration for details on setting up Gmail, Outlook, or other email providers.

Why Do I Need This?

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) helps protect your domain from email spoofing and phishing. When you enable DMARC on your domain, email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo send you aggregate reports showing:

• Who's sending email claiming to be from your domain
• Which emails passed or failed authentication (SPF/DKIM)
• How many emails were sent, and from which IP addresses
• Whether malicious actors are trying to impersonate your domain

The Problem: These reports arrive as compressed XML attachments in your inbox - nearly impossible to read or analyze manually.

The Solution: Parse DMARC automatically fetches these reports from your inbox, parses them, and displays everything in a beautiful dashboard. All in a single 14MB Docker image.

Features

• 📧 Auto-fetches reports from any IMAP inbox (Gmail, Outlook, etc.)
• 📊 Beautiful dashboard with real-time statistics
• 🔍 See exactly who's sending email as your domain
• 🔧 Built-in DNS record generator for easy DMARC setup
• 📦 Single binary - no databases to install, no complex setup
• 🚀 Tiny 14MB Docker image
• 🔒 Secure TLS support
• 🌙 Dark mode support

Installation

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew tap meysam81/tap
brew install parse-dmarc

Docker

docker pull meysam81/parse-dmarc

Binary Downloads

Download pre-built binaries from the Releases page.

Quick Start

Step 1: Set Up DNS to Receive DMARC Reports

This is the most important step! Without this, you won't receive any reports to analyze.

Add a DMARC TXT record to your domain's DNS:

Name: _dmarc.yourdomain.com
Type: TXT
Value: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com

What this means:

• p=none - Monitor only (don't block emails yet)
• rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com - Send aggregate reports to this email address

Important: Replace dmarc@yourdomain.com with an actual email inbox you control. This is where Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc. will send your DMARC reports.

DNS Examples:

• Cloudflare: DNS > Add record > Type: TXT, Name: _dmarc, Content: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com
• Google Domains: DNS > Custom records > TXT, Name: _dmarc, Data: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com
• AWS Route53: Create record > Type: TXT, Name: _dmarc.yourdomain.com, Value: "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com"

Reports typically start arriving within 24-48 hours.

Step 2: Run Parse DMARC with Docker

Run the container:

docker run -d \
  --name parse-dmarc \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -e IMAP_HOST=imap.gmail.com \
  -e IMAP_PORT=993 \
  -e IMAP_USERNAME=your-email@gmail.com \
  -e IMAP_PASSWORD=your-app-password \
  -v parse-dmarc:/data \
  meysam81/parse-dmarc

For Gmail users: You'll need an App Password, not your regular Gmail password.

Access the dashboard: Open http://localhost:8080 in your browser.

What You'll See

Once DMARC reports start arriving and Parse DMARC processes them, your dashboard will show:

• Total messages analyzed across all reports
• DMARC compliance rate (SPF/DKIM pass rates)
• Top sending sources (IP addresses and organizations sending as your domain)
• Authentication results (which emails passed/failed SPF and DKIM)
• Policy actions (how receiving servers handled your email)

This helps you:

• Verify your legitimate email services are properly configured
• Detect unauthorized use of your domain
• Gradually move from monitoring (p=none) to enforcement (p=quarantine or p=reject)

Configuration Options

IMAP Settings for Common Providers

Gmail:

{
  "host": "imap.gmail.com",
  "port": 993,
  "username": "your-email@gmail.com",
  "password": "your-app-password",
  "use_tls": true
}

Requires App Password

Outlook/Office 365:

{
  "host": "outlook.office365.com",
  "port": 993,
  "username": "your-email@outlook.com",
  "password": "your-password",
  "use_tls": true
}

Generic IMAP: Most providers use port 993 with TLS. Check your provider's documentation.

Command Line Options

# Fetch once and exit (useful for cron jobs)
docker exec parse-dmarc ./parse-dmarc -fetch-once

# Serve dashboard only (no fetching)
docker exec parse-dmarc ./parse-dmarc -serve-only

# Custom fetch interval (in seconds, default 300)
docker exec parse-dmarc ./parse-dmarc -fetch-interval=600

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I'm not receiving any reports. What's wrong?

A: Check these things in order:

1. Did you add the _dmarc TXT record to your DNS? (Use a DNS checker like dig _dmarc.yourdomain.com TXT)
2. Wait 24-48 hours - reports aren't instant
3. Is your domain sending/receiving email? No email = no reports
4. Check your IMAP credentials are correct in config.json

Q: Do I need SPF and DKIM set up first?

A: No! DMARC reports will show you whether SPF and DKIM are passing or failing, which helps you configure them correctly.

Q: What should my DMARC policy be?

A: Start with p=none (monitoring only). After reviewing reports and fixing any issues, gradually move to p=quarantine and then p=reject.

Q: How much email traffic do I need?

A: Any amount works. Even small domains with a few emails per day will receive useful reports.

Q: Can I use a Gmail account to receive reports?

A: Yes! Create a dedicated Gmail like dmarc@yourdomain.com, forward it to your personal Gmail if needed, and use Gmail's IMAP settings.

Advanced

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/meysam81/parse-dmarc.git
cd parse-dmarc
just install-deps
just build
./bin/parse-dmarc -config=config.json

Docker Compose

See compose.yml for Docker Compose configuration.

API Endpoints

• GET /api/statistics - Dashboard statistics
• GET /api/reports - List of reports (paginated)
• GET /api/reports/:id - Detailed report view
• GET /api/top-sources - Top sending source IPs
• GET /metrics - Prometheus metrics endpoint

Prometheus Metrics & Grafana Integration

Parse DMARC includes production-ready Prometheus metrics for monitoring and alerting. Metrics are enabled by default and exposed at /metrics.

Available Metrics

Build Information

Report Processing

IMAP Connection

DMARC Statistics

Per-Domain/Org Metrics

Authentication Results

HTTP Server

Go Runtime (Built-in)

Standard Go runtime metrics are also exposed:

• go_goroutines - Number of goroutines
• go_memstats_* - Memory statistics
• go_gc_* - Garbage collection metrics
• process_* - Process metrics (CPU, memory, file descriptors)

Disabling Metrics

To disable the metrics endpoint:

# Command line
./parse-dmarc --metrics=false

# Environment variable
export PARSE_DMARC_METRICS=false

# Docker
docker run -e PARSE_DMARC_METRICS=false meysam81/parse-dmarc

Prometheus Configuration

Add Parse DMARC to your prometheus.yml:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: "parse-dmarc"
    static_configs:
      - targets: ["parse-dmarc:8080"]
    scrape_interval: 30s
    metrics_path: /metrics

For Kubernetes with ServiceMonitor (Prometheus Operator):

apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1
kind: ServiceMonitor
metadata:
  name: parse-dmarc
  labels:
    app: parse-dmarc
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: parse-dmarc
  endpoints:
    - port: http
      path: /metrics
      interval: 30s

Grafana Dashboard

A production-ready Grafana dashboard is included in grafana/dashboard.json.

Import Manually

1. In Grafana, go to Dashboards > Import
2. Upload grafana/dashboard.json or paste its contents
3. Select your Prometheus datasource
4. Click Import

Provision Automatically (Recommended for Production)

# Copy dashboard to Grafana dashboards directory
cp grafana/dashboard.json /var/lib/grafana/dashboards/parse-dmarc/

# Copy provisioning config
cp grafana/provisioning.yaml /etc/grafana/provisioning/dashboards/parse-dmarc.yaml

# Restart Grafana or wait for it to pick up changes
systemctl restart grafana-server

Dashboard Variables

Dashboard Sections

Example Grafana Panels

Compliance Rate Gauge:

parse_dmarc_dmarc_compliance_rate

Messages Over Time:

rate(parse_dmarc_dmarc_messages_total[5m])

Compliance Rate by Domain:

parse_dmarc_dmarc_compliance_rate_by_domain

SPF/DKIM Pass Rate:

# SPF Pass Rate
parse_dmarc_dmarc_spf_results{result="pass"} / ignoring(result) sum(parse_dmarc_dmarc_spf_results) * 100

# DKIM Pass Rate
parse_dmarc_dmarc_dkim_results{result="pass"} / ignoring(result) sum(parse_dmarc_dmarc_dkim_results) * 100

Fetch Success Rate:

1 - (rate(parse_dmarc_reports_fetch_errors_total[1h]) / rate(parse_dmarc_reports_fetch_cycles_total[1h]))

IMAP Connection Health:

rate(parse_dmarc_imap_connections_total{status="success"}[5m]) /
(rate(parse_dmarc_imap_connections_total{status="success"}[5m]) + rate(parse_dmarc_imap_connections_total{status="error"}[5m]))

HTTP Request Latency (p95):

histogram_quantile(0.95, rate(parse_dmarc_http_request_duration_seconds_bucket[5m]))

Reports by Organization:

topk(10, parse_dmarc_dmarc_reports_by_org)

Alerting Rules

Example Prometheus alerting rules:

groups:
  - name: parse-dmarc
    rules:
      - alert: DMARCComplianceLow
        expr: parse_dmarc_dmarc_compliance_rate < 90
        for: 1h
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: "DMARC compliance rate is below 90%"
          description: "Current compliance rate: {{ $value }}%"

      - alert: DMARCFetchFailures
        expr: rate(parse_dmarc_reports_fetch_errors_total[15m]) > 0
        for: 30m
        labels:
          severity: critical
        annotations:
          summary: "Parse DMARC fetch failures detected"
          description: "IMAP fetch operations are failing"

      - alert: IMAPConnectionErrors
        expr: rate(parse_dmarc_imap_connections_total{status="error"}[5m]) > 0
        for: 10m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: "IMAP connection errors detected"
          description: "Check IMAP credentials and server connectivity"

      - alert: NoRecentFetch
        expr: time() - parse_dmarc_reports_last_fetch_timestamp_seconds > 600
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: warning
        annotations:
          summary: "No recent DMARC report fetch"
          description: "Last fetch was {{ humanizeDuration $value }} ago"

Docker Compose with Prometheus & Grafana

Complete monitoring stack:

version: "3.8"

services:
  parse-dmarc:
    image: meysam81/parse-dmarc
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - ./config.json:/app/config.json
      - ./data:/data

  prometheus:
    image: prom/prometheus
    ports:
      - "9090:9090"
    volumes:
      - ./prometheus.yml:/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml
    command:
      - "--config.file=/etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml"

  grafana:
    image: grafana/grafana
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - GF_SECURITY_ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin
    volumes:
      - grafana-data:/var/lib/grafana

volumes:
  grafana-data:

With prometheus.yml:

global:
  scrape_interval: 15s

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: "parse-dmarc"
    static_configs:
      - targets: ["parse-dmarc:8080"]

Access:

• Parse DMARC Dashboard: http://localhost:8080
• Prometheus: http://localhost:9090
• Grafana: http://localhost:3000 (admin/admin)

Why Parse DMARC vs ParseDMARC?

This project is inspired by ParseDMARC but built for simplicity:

• Single 14MB binary vs Python + Elasticsearch + Kibana stack
• Built-in dashboard vs external visualization tools
• SQLite vs Elasticsearch (no JVM required)
• Zero dependencies vs complex setup

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome! Please check the issues page.

License

Apache-2.0 - see LICENSE for details.

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