Add a DNS section to Site Health (and status checks for SPF and DMARC)

[zodiac1978]

In February 2024 Google and Yahoo announced some changes for sending mails:
​https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126?hl=en
​https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/

For example, both are now requiring SPF or DKIM and you need valid forward and reverse DNS record for your sending IPs.

This is the requirement for all senders (for bulk senders with more than 5000 mails per day there are even stricter rules).

So using a Gmail address within WordPress and not having a valid SPF could lead to mails getting bounced for not passing the SPF check. Important mails (Password reset, fatal error handler, etc.) are not getting attention.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to check these settings. You need to know where you can set this up at your hoster or you need to know external tools for checking, like: ​https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx, ​https://www.nslookup.io or ​https://dnschecker.org/all-dns-records-of-domain.php

So why not adding a DNS section to the Site Health report, adding those records? And some status checks where possible?

As @swissspidy has pointed out on X/Twitter, this needs more thoughts and polishing before getting in core, so I have built a proof of concept as a plugin:

​https://github.com/Zodiac1978/dns-info

This could easily be transformed to a patch for the Site Health component by me.

I am interested in feedback and what should be changed to get this in core. Here or on GitHub.

Thanks in advance!

[zodiac1978]

New DNS section in the Site Health Info tab

[zodiac1978]

Failed SPF record status check