Manage sub-domain emails using sub-domain stripping

Manage sub-domain emails using sub-domain stripping

As an admin, you may need separate domains for different departments such as sales, support, and marketing. While this approach offers flexibility, creating and managing multiple domains can quickly become overwhelming, especially since each domain requires time-consuming configuration and DNS management.

This is where sub-domain stripping comes in to simplify your workflow.

How does sub-domain stripping help?
Sub-domain stripping is the process of routing all emails delivered to sub-domains directly to the main and primary domain.
Example:
Emails sent to user@sales.admin.com will be automatically delivered to user@admin.com.
Instead of managing multiple standalone domains, you can simply create sub-domains under your primary domain, such as:
This approach significantly reduces domain setup and DNS record configuration.
Once the sub-domains are created, you can enable the sub-domain stripping option from the Admin Console. This ensures that all emails addressed to your sub-domains are routed to your main and primary domain, allowing you to manage everything from a single place with minimal effort.

Use cases of sub-domain stripping
  • Securing unused and vulnerable sub-domains:
    Attackers claim an organization’s sub-domain identity to host phishing or malicious content. This typically happens due to unattended or dangling DNS records associated with unused sub-domains. This method used by cyber attackers is called sub-domain takeovers.

    By using Sub-domain stripping, you can prevent malicious or misdirected emails from being infiltrated into your organization, reducing the risk of exploitation.

  • Simplified email handling for trial and test environments:
    Admins can set up a trial on a sub-domain and use sub-domain stripping to forward incoming emails to the main domain. 
    In this scenario:

    1. You need not change the MX records of your actual domain. 
    2. Simply create and update the MX records for a subdomain (Example:  sub.yourdomain.com).

    This allows you to complete setup tasks like adding/ verifying the domain, creating user accounts etc, without pointing the MX records. 

    You can also enable email forwarding for some selective accounts, from     user@yourdomain.com to user@sub.yourdomain.com, until you are ready to update the MX records of the actual domain. 

  • Managing forgotten sub-domains in External Attack Surface Management (EASM):
    External Attack Surface Management (EASM) focuses on identifying, diagnosing, and eliminating forgotten, abandoned, or unused sub-domains whose DNS records still point to external or third-party services.

    These sub-domains are often created for temporary activities like marketing campaigns, surveys, or polling. Once the activity ends, the third-party service is cancelled, but the DNS records remain, pointing to a non-existent resource.

    By enabling sub-domain stripping, all emails sent to these sub-domains are automatically redirected to your original main domain, reducing exposure and improving control.

  • Centralized email traffic monitoring across sub-domains:
    As an admin, tracking the volume of incoming emails to your primary domain is often essential.

    With sub-domain stripping enabled, all emails sent to sub-domains are re-routed to the main domain. For example:

    1. Emails addressed to user@sales.main.com
    2. Emails addressed to user@support.main.com

    Both will be delivered to user@main.com, making it easier to group, monitor, and analyze incoming email traffic.

  • Reduce email alias management:
    Email alias is commonly used to receive emails without exposing your primary email address. However, managing a large number of aliases can create additional administrative overhead.

    Sub-domain stripping simplifies this by routing all incoming emails sent to a specific sub-domain to a single destination mailbox. This eliminates the need to create and maintain individual aliases, reduces configuration complexity, saves administrative time, and better user experience.
How to enable Subdomain Stripping in Zoho Mail Admin Console?
  2. Navigate to Domains section.
  3. Select the domain for which subdomain stripping has to be configured.
  4. Navigate to Subdomain Stripping under Advanced Settings.
  5. Click the toggle button to turn on subdomain stripping for the domain.
  6. Click the Enable button in the Confirm Action! pop-up to activate subdomain stripping for the domain.Enable sub-domain stripping
 
Pro Tip: Sub-domain stripping not only simplifies email management but also strengthens security and improves visibility, making it a powerful tool for modern admins.