Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access
E700353
"Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access" (RFC 8314) is an IETF standards-track document that recommends and defines best practices for using TLS to secure email submission and retrieval protocols instead of unencrypted connections.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7928158 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access Context triple: [RFC 8314, title, Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access]
-
A.
SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over Transport Layer Security
SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over Transport Layer Security is an IETF standard (RFC 3207) that defines how to use TLS to provide encryption and secure authentication for SMTP email transmissions.
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B.
Negotiated Finite Field Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Parameters for Transport Layer Security (TLS)
"Negotiated Finite Field Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Parameters for Transport Layer Security (TLS)" is an IETF standard (RFC 7919) that defines secure, standardized finite-field Diffie-Hellman parameter sets for use in TLS to improve cryptographic security and interoperability.
-
C.
The Secure Shell (SSH) Authentication Protocol
The Secure Shell (SSH) Authentication Protocol is a standardized network protocol that defines methods for securely authenticating users and hosts in SSH connections using mechanisms such as passwords, public keys, and keyboard-interactive methods.
-
D.
RFC 7465 (prohibition in TLS)
RFC 7465 is an Internet standards document that formally prohibits the use of the RC4 stream cipher in Transport Layer Security (TLS) due to its significant cryptographic weaknesses.
-
E.
TLS
TLS (Transport Layer Security) is a cryptographic protocol that secures data transmitted over networks by providing encryption, authentication, and integrity between communicating applications.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access Target entity description: "Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access" (RFC 8314) is an IETF standards-track document that recommends and defines best practices for using TLS to secure email submission and retrieval protocols instead of unencrypted connections.
-
A.
SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over Transport Layer Security
SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over Transport Layer Security is an IETF standard (RFC 3207) that defines how to use TLS to provide encryption and secure authentication for SMTP email transmissions.
-
B.
Negotiated Finite Field Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Parameters for Transport Layer Security (TLS)
"Negotiated Finite Field Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral Parameters for Transport Layer Security (TLS)" is an IETF standard (RFC 7919) that defines secure, standardized finite-field Diffie-Hellman parameter sets for use in TLS to improve cryptographic security and interoperability.
-
C.
The Secure Shell (SSH) Authentication Protocol
The Secure Shell (SSH) Authentication Protocol is a standardized network protocol that defines methods for securely authenticating users and hosts in SSH connections using mechanisms such as passwords, public keys, and keyboard-interactive methods.
-
D.
RFC 7465 (prohibition in TLS)
RFC 7465 is an Internet standards document that formally prohibits the use of the RC4 stream cipher in Transport Layer Security (TLS) due to its significant cryptographic weaknesses.
-
E.
TLS
TLS (Transport Layer Security) is a cryptographic protocol that secures data transmitted over networks by providing encryption, authentication, and integrity between communicating applications.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Best current practice for email security
ⓘ
IETF standards-track document ⓘ |
| addresses |
Certificate validation for email protocols
ⓘ
Deprecation of weak ciphers and protocols for email ⓘ Downgrade attack risks on STARTTLS ⓘ Opportunistic versus mandatory TLS for email ⓘ Server and client configuration for secure email protocols ⓘ Use of modern TLS versions for email security ⓘ |
| appliesToProtocol |
IMAP
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Message Submission (MSA) NERFINISHED ⓘ POP3 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| area | Applications ⓘ |
| category | Standards Track ⓘ |
| defines |
Security requirements for email access over TLS
ⓘ
Security requirements for email submission over TLS ⓘ |
| discourages |
Use of STARTTLS on port 25 for message submission
ⓘ
Use of cleartext IMAP on port 143 ⓘ Use of cleartext POP3 on port 110 ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
Use of Transport Layer Security for email access
ⓘ
Use of Transport Layer Security for email submission NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
Email client implementers
ⓘ
Email service providers ⓘ System administrators ⓘ |
| obsoletesCleartext | Traditional unencrypted email submission and access ⓘ |
| protocolFamily | Application layer protocols ⓘ |
| publishedBy | Internet Engineering Task Force ⓘ |
| recommends |
Deprecation of cleartext email protocols on default ports
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Disabling plaintext authentication on unencrypted channels ⓘ Rejecting cleartext logins when TLS is available ⓘ Use of TLS by default for email clients ⓘ Use of implicit TLS for email access ⓘ Use of implicit TLS for email submission NERFINISHED ⓘ Use of port 465 for message submission over implicit TLS ⓘ Use of port 993 for IMAP over implicit TLS ⓘ Use of port 995 for POP3 over implicit TLS ⓘ |
| securityGoal |
Confidentiality of email content in transit
ⓘ
Confidentiality of email credentials ⓘ Integrity of email sessions ⓘ Mitigation of active man-in-the-middle attacks ⓘ Protection against passive eavesdropping ⓘ |
| shortName | Cleartext Considered Obsolete NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| status | Proposed Standard ⓘ |
| stream |
Internet Engineering Task Force
ⓘ
surface form:
IETF
|
| subject |
Email security
ⓘ
Secure email submission and retrieval NERFINISHED ⓘ TLS configuration for email ⓘ |
| title | Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| updates | Email submission and access best practices ⓘ |
| usesTechnology | Transport Layer Security NERFINISHED ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access Description of subject: "Cleartext Considered Obsolete: Use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for Email Submission and Access" (RFC 8314) is an IETF standards-track document that recommends and defines best practices for using TLS to secure email submission and retrieval protocols instead of unencrypted connections.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.