Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH v10) — Question 156

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?

Answer options

• A. OPPORTUNISTICTLS
• B. UPGRADETLS
• C. FORCETLS
• D. STARTTLS

Correct answer: D

Explanation

The correct answer is STARTTLS, which is the command that enables an upgrade to a TLS-encrypted connection in SMTP. The other options, while they suggest some form of TLS interaction, are not valid commands recognized by the SMTP protocol for this purpose.