Making Those DMARC XML Reports Human-Readable

After donning my propeller beanie and carefully researching everything that was researchable about SPF, DKIM and DMARC, I jumped through the hoops on the G Suite Admin panel and then headed over to our domain registrar (easyDNS) to add some TXT entries via their DNS panels. Fortunately, they have a pretty good “here’s how you do it” section to coach customers along. After getting SPF and DKIM set up (and checked using G Suite Toolbox (https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/main/), I proceeded to add the DMARC record. Rather than jump into the deep end of the pool, I decided to wade in the shallows for a while and just set the policy to simply report what’s going on and email it to me (v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[email protected]). After putting this in place and double-checking with the G Suite Toolbox (which, by the way, told me that my DMARC is OK, but I have another problem with an MX elsewhere on another server), I waited for the first report. The next morning, it arrived as a zipped file attached to an email from noreply-dmarc- [email protected]. When unzipped, there’s an XML file contained within (see below):

XML is not the easiest filetype to read and digest, so with the assistance of Google, I found that LibreOffice Calc (the spreadsheet application) does a very nice job of importing XML and making it “digestible” for human consumption. LibreOffice Calc also just happens to be the de facto standard Office suite on many Linux distributions. On the next couple of pages are screenshots that show how to import the DMARC XML file that Google sends you and just how nice LibreOffice Calc displays the information contained within.

1 Step 1: Open LibreOffice Calc, pull down the Data menu and select XML Source . . .

2 Step 2: Click the Source File icon in the upper left of the XML Source window, find the XML file in your filesystem, select it, then scroll down, find and select the “record” container. It will highlight everything within it. Finally, type in “A1” in the Mapped cell field. If all appears as it does below, you’re ready to click the [Import] button.

3 Step 3: All it takes is a little formatting and you have a bona fide spreadsheet of useful information. Just like the G Suite Toolbox – Check MX tool told me, I have a mail exchanger issue with my list-server, so I need to do a little MX surgery and modify its “header from” code on that beast.

Addendum: Microsoft Excel probably also has this capability, but since I rarely use computers that operate with that company’s OS, I can’t speak to how it works. Perhaps another TG can do a how-to for Microsoft Excel.

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