security / email authentication / mx records
Email authentication

MX records

MX records tell the internet which servers are responsible for receiving email for your domain.

Severity if missing
Low
Category
Email authentication
Standard
RFC 5321

What it is

An MX (Mail Exchange) record is a DNS entry that points your domain to the mail servers that accept incoming email for it. When someone emails you, their server looks up your MX records to know where to deliver the message.

You can have several MX records with different priorities, so mail can fall back to a secondary server if your primary one is unavailable.

Why it matters

MX records are about deliverability rather than direct security, but they matter for the bigger picture. If they're missing, your domain simply can't receive email. Their presence also confirms your domain is set up for mail — which is the context the SPF, DKIM and DMARC checks build on.

The risk
No MX records means your domain cannot receive email at all. Misconfigured records can cause lost or delayed messages.

How Pentrawl checks it

Pentrawl looks up the MX records for your domain and lists the mail servers they point to, along with their priorities. Finding at least one valid MX record passes the check.

How to fix it

Add MX records through your DNS provider, pointing to your email host's mail servers. Your provider supplies the exact hostnames and priorities to use.

Example MX record
yourdomain.com. MX 10 mail.yourprovider.com.

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