Microsoft Fixes Hotmail Delivery Failures After Misconfigured SPF DNS

Friday Microsoft told Bleeping Computer "that they have fixed the issue and Hotmail should no longer fail SPF checks." But earlier in the day the site reported that "Hotmail users worldwide have problems sending emails, with messages flagged as spam or not delivered after Microsoft misconfigured the domain's DNS SPF record."The email issues began late Thursday night, with users and admins reporting on Reddit, Twitter, and Microsoft forums that their Hotmail emails were failing due to SPF validation errors... The Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email security feature that reduces spam and prevents threat actors from spoofing domains in phishing attacks... When a mail server receives an email, it will verify that the hostname/IP address for the sending email servers is part of a domain's SPF record, and if it is, allows the email to be delivered as usual... After analyzing what was causing email delivery errors, admins noted that Microsoft removed the 'include:spf.protection.outlook.com' record from hotmail.com's SPF record. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Archangel Michaelfor sharing the news.

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