What is Authenticated Replies (ARF enhancements)?

ARF also known as the Abuse Reporting Format is defined in RFC 5965 for the format itself and RFC 6591 for failure reporting. ARF is the standard used for Feedback Loops which are the complaint reports mailbox providers send to domain owners.

Authenticated Replies or Authenticated ARF refers to emerging proposals that enhance this system by adding cryptographic verification. The goal is to prevent forged or spoofed complaint reports which can damage sender reputation.

Future enhancements focus on:

Signed ARF reports using cryptographic seals that verify the mailbox provider truly generated the complaint.

Metadata that records authentication results at the moment the end user hit “Report Spam.”

Verified identifiers that prevent attackers from submitting fake complaint reports.

These changes strengthen trust in complaint data and create a more reliable foundation for sender reputation systems.