Upcoming in OpenEFA v1.6.3 - Quarantine & DNS Scoring Fixes
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 9:28 am
We are preparing v1.6.3 with important bug fixes for quarantine email release and DNS spam scoring. These changes are currently in testing and will be included in the next release.
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RELEASE AVAILABILITY
EFAcollective registered instances of OpenEFA will receive this release within days of general availability.
Instances of OpenEFA not registered with EFAcollective can download the updates per the 30-day release schedule from our GitHub repository.
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WHAT IS COMING
1. Quarantine Release Delivery Fix
We have identified and fixed an issue where releasing emails from quarantine showed "success" but the email never arrived at the destination mail server. The root cause was how raw emails were stored in the database - newline characters were being escaped, resulting in malformed emails when sent via SMTP.
2. Relay Server Selection Fix
Fixed an issue where released emails could be sent to a placeholder relay instead of the domain-specific relay configured in your settings. This occurred when recipient addresses contained angle brackets (e.g.,).
3. DNS Scoring Improvements for Hosted Email Providers
We have improved how the DNS module handles emails from hosted email providers (Zimbra, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.). Previously, these were incorrectly flagged with high spam scores (+12 points) because the "spoofing detection" triggered when the sending server hostname did not match the sender domain - which is completely normal for hosted email.
The improvement: When SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all pass, the DNS spoofing penalty will now be bypassed. Passing all three authentication methods proves the email is legitimate, regardless of which server actually sent it.
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EXPECTED IMPACT
Email from hosted provider (auth passes):
- Current: DNS: +12, Total: ~13, Quarantined
- After v1.6.3: DNS: 0, Total: ~1, Delivered
Quarantine release:
- Current: May appear successful but not delivered
- After v1.6.3: Reliably delivered to relay
---
RELEASE TIMELINE
These fixes are currently being tested and will be included in the next official release. Stay tuned for the update announcement.
---
RELEASE AVAILABILITY
EFAcollective registered instances of OpenEFA will receive this release within days of general availability.
Instances of OpenEFA not registered with EFAcollective can download the updates per the 30-day release schedule from our GitHub repository.
---
WHAT IS COMING
1. Quarantine Release Delivery Fix
We have identified and fixed an issue where releasing emails from quarantine showed "success" but the email never arrived at the destination mail server. The root cause was how raw emails were stored in the database - newline characters were being escaped, resulting in malformed emails when sent via SMTP.
2. Relay Server Selection Fix
Fixed an issue where released emails could be sent to a placeholder relay instead of the domain-specific relay configured in your settings. This occurred when recipient addresses contained angle brackets (e.g.,
3. DNS Scoring Improvements for Hosted Email Providers
We have improved how the DNS module handles emails from hosted email providers (Zimbra, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.). Previously, these were incorrectly flagged with high spam scores (+12 points) because the "spoofing detection" triggered when the sending server hostname did not match the sender domain - which is completely normal for hosted email.
The improvement: When SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all pass, the DNS spoofing penalty will now be bypassed. Passing all three authentication methods proves the email is legitimate, regardless of which server actually sent it.
---
EXPECTED IMPACT
Email from hosted provider (auth passes):
- Current: DNS: +12, Total: ~13, Quarantined
- After v1.6.3: DNS: 0, Total: ~1, Delivered
Quarantine release:
- Current: May appear successful but not delivered
- After v1.6.3: Reliably delivered to relay
---
RELEASE TIMELINE
These fixes are currently being tested and will be included in the next official release. Stay tuned for the update announcement.