Subject: Protocol Action: SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over TLS to Proposed Standard

From: The IESG <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 08:15:12 -0500

The IESG has approved the Internet-Draft 'SMTP Service Extension for
Secure SMTP over TLS' <draft-hoffman-smtp-ssl-10.txt> as a Proposed
Standard.  This document is not the of an IETF Working Group.  The IESG
contact persons is Jeff Schiller.

Technical Summary
 
This document defines an extension to the SMTP service that permits
the negotiation of Transport Layer Security (TLS) for providing
confidential transport of e-mail between transport agents and clients
that speak the SMTP protocol. It also provides hop by hop
authentication between SMTP speaking servers. It is not a substitute
for message based applications such as S/MIME and PGP/MIME. However it
provides significant protection in certain environments (for example,
between the SMTP servers of cooperating partners).

Working Group Summary

This document is not the product of an IETF working group but has been
subject to review by people interested in both security and electronic
mail systems. It has undergone a lengthly IETF Wide Last Call period
as well.

Protocol Quality

This document was reviewed by Jeffrey I. Schiller for the IESG.