Human-facing layer (HF)

Human-facing layer (HF), layer 08 of 09: the path a message takes through the email stack, with this layer highlighted.

Taxonomies › Email infrastructure › Human-facing layer

Layer 08 of 09 · 13 threats · prefix HF

The interface decides which facts about a message a person sees before they act on it. These entries cover what the client and the platform present, and the decisions the design leaves to the user.

Scope: What the client and platform present to the person reading or sending.

Table: Human-facing layer (HF), 13 threats with their mitigation principles and design measures. The full text is in the PDF and Excel downloads on the email infrastructure taxonomy overview page.

Text version: every entry on this page is in the PDF and Excel downloads on the overview page, where it can be searched and copied.

The threats

  • HF·A Display Name Deception
  • HF·K Lookalike Rendering
  • HF·Q Thread Hijack
  • HF·J Indicator Spoofing
  • HF·10 Reply-Path Diversion
  • HF·9 Link Presentation Mismatch
  • HF·8 Warning Fatigue
  • HF·7 Trusted Internal Sender
  • HF·6 Platform Feature Mimicry
  • HF·5 Auto-Added Content
  • HF·4 Assistant-Mediated Deception
  • HF·3 Signal Loss in Compact Views
  • HF·2 Misdirected Send

STRIDE, CAPEC and CWE

Of the 13 entries here, STRIDE fits 8 cleanly and 5 only loosely. CAPEC 3.9 has a pattern that describes 1 of them directly, only a generic parent pattern for 8, and nothing for 4. CWE 4.20 names the weakness directly for 6, has only a broader weakness for 7,. The table below gives the mapping entry by entry, with the names of the CAPEC patterns and CWE weaknesses; what the mapping shows across the whole taxonomy is in Mapping the Email Threat Taxonomy to STRIDE, CAPEC and CWE. The Excel, SKOS and STIX downloads carry the same mapping as text.

Table: STRIDE, CAPEC and CWE mapping for Human-facing layer (HF), 13 threats, with each entry's STRIDE categories and fit, CAPEC 3.9 patterns and CWE 4.20 weaknesses. The full mapping is in the Excel, SKOS and STIX downloads on the email infrastructure taxonomy overview page.

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© 2026 Jonathan Brett Crawley. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 with additional permissions: see the licence on the email infrastructure overview.