Françoise BeltzungMar 11
David Huser

Where does your commune host email? I did an analysis via DNS records and plotted it on a map:

https://mxmap.ch/

This is an early version, looking for feedback 👀

#digitalsovereignty #dns

MXmap — Email Sovereignty of Swiss Municipalities

Interactive map showing where Swiss municipalities host their official email. DNS analysis of all ~2,100 municipalities, color-coded by provider.

MXmap
Mar 8 at 10:34amWeb
Show threadBeleggrodionMar 8
@davidhuser As i see and look through some entries, there are perhaps some corrections. ex. seppmail.cloud entries are only a mx relay server for spam/virus check mails and encrypt/decrypt smime mails as i know. Behind it can still be office 365, another provider or selfhosted.
Show threadDavid HuserMar 8
@Beleggrodion thanks, looking into it, and how to reflect them on the map
Show threadDavid HuserMar 9
@Beleggrodion I updated the pipeline to look for gateways and use a neat autodiscover check suggested by another reply here. More M365 now
Show threadfaebudoMar 8
@davidhuser A lot of them have spf.protection.outlook.com in their SPF which means that there is a high probability that the mailboxes are actually hosted on M365 but they use a (cloud-hosted) mail security gateway like SEPPMail or cleanmail et al.
I just checked some and the map should be a lot more red IMHO.
Show threadDavid HuserMar 8
@faebudo thanks! I updated it to look for these gateways and if the spf record is M365 it‘s flagged as such
Show threadfaebudoMar 8
@davidhuser You could also have a look at the autodiscover.example.net DNS record to get an idea about where mailclients will be connecting to. This would help to identify the infrastructure of municipalities who use gateways to receive as well as send mail.
Show threadDavid HuserMar 9
@faebudo thanks a lot for your idea, I could identify some more M365 by the autodiscovery approach (from 992 to 1057 now).
Show threadپویان Pouyan Mar 8
@davidhuser very nice! I also had something similar in mind but never came to realize it. Only implemented the golang modules but never did the measurements.

Well done!
Show threadپویان Pouyan Mar 8

@davidhuser two questions:

  • Is there an official list of governmental domain names in Switzerland? (In Germany, there isn’t!)
  • Did you also follow include and redirect in SPF records?
    • Show threadDavid HuserMar 8

    @i thanks!

    on 1. no there is no officially maintained list AFAIK, the data source is Wikipedia (wikidata via sparql). There might be errors and missing URLs so I search for candidates like "commune-XY.ch" as well.

    on 2. not yet, but will look into it

    Show threadپویان Pouyan Mar 8
    @davidhuser thanks for the quick reply. Wikipedia sounds good, I must give it a try. We used to just perform automate search queries (initially Google, later Qwant), filter out common results (e.g., yellow pages) and then verify manually if necessary.

    Re 2.: I have the implementation, but not tested comprehensively yet. If you're interested, I can let you know as soon as I have an MVP. I did my best to implement SPF RFC completely.
    Show threadOriMar 8
    Excellent. Merci.
    Show threadmsMar 8
    @davidhuser Great idea for an important topic. Awesome work. Thanks.
    Show threaddatenschatzMar 9

    @davidhuser

    https://hackerpublicradio.org/eps/hpr4379/index.html

    Is the idea based on this project?

    This was done for many countries in Europe-but I find it less visually impressing than your map of Switzerland.

    HPR4379::Mapping Municipalities' Digital Dependencies

    Hacker Public Radio is a podcast that releases shows every weekday Monday through Friday. Our shows are produced by the community (you) and can be on any topic that is of interest to hackers and hobbyists.

    Show threadDavid HuserMar 9
    @datenschatz I‘ve seen the map but not the code or blog, will put a ref into the readme file, thanks! Yes I thought areas are more explanatory