What are the implications of disabling TLS 1.0/1.1 for outgoing email and what alternatives are available?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Email marketer from cPanel Forums shares that disabling older TLS versions is a good security practice, but it's crucial to ensure that the server and client configurations support newer versions. They suggest testing different configurations to ensure compatibility and avoiding disruption to email services.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that based on surveys, disabling TLS 1.0/1.1 will result in some clear-text transmissions from older systems. He also states that >97% of outbound was TLSv1.2 and most of the rest was clear-text.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that their usage rate of TLS1.2/TLS1.3 is around 99.3%. They validate a policy for just over half of their mail for MTA-STS, and encountered ~50 domains with broken MTA-STS implementations in the last 30 days, resulting in a 0.00013% increase in bounces for customers. Requiring TLS1.2+ would have a much larger impact than honoring MTA-STS.
Email marketer from MXToolbox states that using TLS ensures secure connections between mail servers and clients, preventing eavesdropping. They discuss that all email communication should occur over TLS 1.2 or greater. MXToolbox further goes on to share that by leveraging TLS you can protect sensitive data and meet compliance requirements.
Email marketer from Reddit shares that enabling TLS 1.2 or higher and disabling older versions is crucial for modern email security. They discuss the impact on older email clients and the importance of communicating these changes to users.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that disabling TLS 1.0/1.1 is necessary for PCI compliance. The potential implication is that older systems will not be able to connect. The redditor suggests upgrading systems to support TLS 1.2 or higher and testing compatibility.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests adopting MTA-STS/DANE for better transit security. He also notes that MTA-STS (at enforce) and DANE will not deliver unless it's a validated TLSv1.2 connection.
Email marketer from StackOverflow answers that disabling TLS 1.0/1.1 can lead to issues if the receiving server doesn't support newer versions. He advises checking logs to see which connections are still using older TLS versions and suggests that while disabling older versions is good for security, you should monitor for compatibility issues.
Email marketer from Qualys discusses the impact of disabling TLS 1.0/1.1 from a security perspective, emphasizing the need for upgrading to TLS 1.2 and above. The blog post discusses the impact and advises that TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are insecure and should be disabled, detailing the steps and timelines for doing so. Also, that by upgrading to TLS 1.2 or 1.3, this will increase email security.
Email marketer from IONOS discusses the importance of TLS for encrypting emails and protecting against eavesdropping. IONOS recommends using the latest TLS version (1.3 or 1.2) to secure email communications and prevent unauthorized access.
Email marketer from EmailOctopus Blog explains that disabling TLS 1.0/1.1 improves security but may cause compatibility issues with older systems. Alternatives include upgrading to TLS 1.2 or 1.3, but also considering implementing STARTTLS and SMTP Authentication (SMTP AUTH) to secure the connection between the email client and the mail server.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains that STARTTLS is a protocol command that upgrades an unencrypted connection to an encrypted (TLS) connection on the same port, instead of switching to a different port. It's important for opportunistic TLS, where encryption is used if available but not required.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that ensuring your domains send secure email is of the utmost importance and one of those steps is to ‘enable TLS’.
Expert from Spam Resource shares that modern systems should use TLS 1.2 or higher. The risks of using older versions include security vulnerabilities. To address the issue of not supporting older versions, she advises that servers be properly configured to negotiate the highest TLS version possible.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from datatracker.ietf.org details that TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are considered obsolete and should be avoided. Systems should upgrade to TLS 1.2 or 1.3 to ensure secure communications. This is not an alternative but strong advice.
Documentation from Microsoft Docs explains that they are deprecating TLS 1.0 and 1.1 in Exchange Online. The impacts include potential connection failures for older email clients and operating systems that do not support TLS 1.2 or higher. As an alternative, users must update their systems to support TLS 1.2 or higher.
Documentation from OpenSSL Wiki explains how to configure OpenSSL to disable TLS 1.0 and 1.1, enforcing the use of TLS 1.2 and higher. It provides guidance on setting the `MinProtocol` option in the OpenSSL configuration file. This documentation outlines how to technically implement the disabling of older protocols.
Documentation from Mozilla Wiki provides detailed guidance on configuring web servers for TLS, including disabling older versions and enabling TLS 1.2 and 1.3. It also includes security considerations and best practices for setting up secure email communication. This gives steps to follow when making changes.
Related resources0Resources
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