312-50V11 · Question #781
Email is transmitted across the Internet using the Simple Mail Transport Protocol. SMTP does not encrypt email, leaving the information in the message vulnerable to being read by an unauthorized perso
The correct answer is D. STARTTLS. STARTTLS is the SMTP command that upgrades a plaintext connection to an encrypted TLS session between mail servers.
Question
Email is transmitted across the Internet using the Simple Mail Transport Protocol. SMTP does not encrypt email, leaving the information in the message vulnerable to being read by an unauthorized person. SMTP can upgrade a connection between two mail servers to use TLS. Email transmitted by SMTP over TLS is encrypted. What is the name of the command used by SMTP to transmit email over TLS?
Options
- AOPPORTUNISTICTLS
- BUPGRADETLS
- CFORCELTS
- DSTARTTLS
How the community answered
(36 responses)- A3% (1)
- B3% (1)
- C6% (2)
- D89% (32)
Why each option
STARTTLS is the SMTP command that upgrades a plaintext connection to an encrypted TLS session between mail servers.
OPPORTUNISTICTLS is not a valid SMTP command - it describes a connection policy or behavior mode, not an actual protocol-level command.
UPGRADETLS is not a real SMTP command defined in any RFC or mail protocol standard.
FORCELTS is not a valid SMTP command and also has the letters of TLS transposed, making it doubly incorrect.
STARTTLS is the standardized SMTP extension command defined in RFC 3207 that instructs a receiving mail server to begin TLS negotiation on an existing plaintext connection. It allows opportunistic encryption without requiring a separate port, upgrading the SMTP session to TLS before any sensitive data is transmitted.
Concept tested: SMTP STARTTLS command for TLS encryption
Source: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3207
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