Email protocols and loopholes
Email, short for electronic mail, is used to send and receive messages in electronic form. To send or receive emails, there are three main protocols:
- Post Office Protocol (POP(3))
- Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP(4))
- Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
All of these protocols are used to send and receive emails, but all of them are different from each other. So, let’s understand the key differences between these three email protocols:
- POP(3): The current version of POP is 3; hence, it is written sometimes as POP3 or POP(3). The major difference between POP(3) and IMAP and SMTP is that after sending or receiving emails from the server, it creates a local copy of the complete mail in the client’s machine and then deletes the email copy from the exchange server. Optionally, you can configure not to delete the email once downloaded. POP(3) uses port numbers
110or995(SSL/TLS). - IMAP(4): The current version...
