The email header is a section of an email message that contains essential information about the email’s origin, destination, and routing details. It is not typically visible in the main body of the email but can be accessed through email client options to view the technical details of the message.
Characteristics:
- Includes sender and recipient email addresses.
- Shows the subject line of the email.
- Contains timestamps indicating when the email was sent and received.
- Displays the path the email took through various mail servers (known as “Received” fields).
- May include authentication results such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks.
- Contains message identifiers like Message-ID and references to related emails.
- Helps in troubleshooting delivery issues and identifying spam or phishing attempts.
Examples:
- From: john.doe@example.com
- To: jane.smith@example.com
- Subject: Meeting Reminder
- Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2024 10:15:00 -0400
- Received: from mail.example.com (mail.example.com [192.0.2.1]) by smtp.example.org with ESMTP id ABC12345
- Message-ID: 1234567890@example.com
