25,465,587 - Pentesting SMTP
Last updated
Last updated
The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a protocol for sending emails in an IP network. It can be used between an email client and an outgoing mail server or between two SMTP servers. SMTP is often combined with the IMAP or POP3 protocols, which can fetch emails and send emails.
Client (MUA
)
➞
Submission Agent (MSA
)
➞
Open Relay (MTA
)
➞
Mail Delivery Agent (MDA
)
➞
Mailbox (POP3
/IMAP
)
The command VRFY
can be used to enumerate existing users on the system. However, this does not always work. Depending on how the SMTP server is configured, the SMTP server may issue code 252
and confirm the existence of a user that does not exist on the system. A list of all SMTP response codes can be found .