System Administration Guide: Network Services

Rule Sets for Running SMTP With TLS

The following table describes rule sets that determine whether an SMTP connection that uses TLS should be accepted, continued, or refused.

Table 14–15 Rule Sets for Running SMTP With TLS

Rule Set 

Description 

tls_server

Acting as a client, sendmail uses this rule set to determine whether the server is currently supported by TLS.

tls_client

Acting as a server, sendmail uses this rule set to determine whether the client is currently supported by TLS.

tls_rcpt

This rule set requires verification of the recipient's MTA. This recipient restriction makes attacks such as DNS spoofing impossible. 

TLS_connection

This rule set checks the requirement that is specified by the RHS of the access map against the actual parameters of the current TLS connection. 

try_tls

sendmail uses this rule set to determine the feasibility of using STARTTLS when connecting to another MTA. If the MTA cannot properly implement STARTTLS, then STARTTLS is not used.

For more information, see http://www.sendmail.org/m4/starttls.html.