Preface

Kitterman SPF is an SPF diagnostic tool by Kitterman Technical Service, Inc. that helps you check if there’s an existing SPF record for the queried domain and does it has a proper record syntax configuration.

What is Kitterman SPF?

The Kitterman SPF tool was published by Scott Kitterman in 2005 in alignment with the RFC 7208 compliant pySPF (Python SPF) library that checks if there’s a pre-existing SPF record for the queried domain. It also examines if the TXT and SPF record types for a domain are the same, calls the pySPF SPF record retrieval, and presents results as per the email’s source of origin. 

How Does Kitterman SPF Check If You Already Have an SPF Record?

Kitterman SPF checks  TXT and SPF record types for the queried domain name and evaluates if the record found is valid or not. It performs a query for the DNS record of both TXT and SPF record types and presents the results. This is followed by the pySPF SPF record retrieval function (dns_spf) to understand if both TXT and SPF records are the same. You receive a Kittermans SPF lookup report based on the examination.

Next, SPF Kitterman performs a live SPF check of a message of the queried domain sent from one of the IP addresses enlisted in the corresponding record. When the record ends in ‘all,’ Kitterman SPF knows what will be the result if no match is successful. However, you will see the ‘SPF record passed validation test with pySPF (Python SPF library)’ message when there’s an agreement between the actual and expected results. 

Domain administrators have to determine if the results are expected when there’s a redirect. You may also get an error message if there’s a syntax issue, and in the case of a complicated SPF record, Kitterman SPF test results may vary significantly.