MTA-STS

MTA-STS Policy Checker

Validate your MTA-STS DNS record, fetch the policy file, and verify MX record alignment per RFC 8461.

What is MTA-STS?

MTA-STS (Mail Transfer Agent Strict Transport Security) is defined in RFC 8461. It allows mail service providers to declare their ability to receive TLS-secured SMTP connections and to specify whether sending servers should refuse to deliver to MX hosts that do not offer TLS with a trusted certificate. MTA-STS prevents downgrade attacks and certificate spoofing on email delivery.

MTA-STS requires two components: a DNS TXT record at _mta-sts.<domain> containing v=STSv1; id=<unique-id>, and a policy file hosted at https://mta-sts.<domain>/.well-known/mta-sts.txt. The policy file specifies the mode (enforce, testing, or none), MX host patterns, and a max_age lifetime in seconds.

Start with mode: testing to monitor for TLS issues via TLS-RPT reports, then transition to mode: enforce once you have confirmed TLS works correctly for all MX hosts. The recommended max_age is 604800 seconds (1 week).

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