diff --git a/typo3/sysext/core/Classes/Mail/TransportFactory.php b/typo3/sysext/core/Classes/Mail/TransportFactory.php
index 7caa2dcf3ff3517550e51f89fe061fc3938cb77f..77a9c6deff99a27112e4ad6afb12efea0364a79d 100644
--- a/typo3/sysext/core/Classes/Mail/TransportFactory.php
+++ b/typo3/sysext/core/Classes/Mail/TransportFactory.php
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ class TransportFactory implements SingletonInterface, LoggerAwareInterface
                 } else {
                     $port = (int)$port;
                 }
-                $useEncryption = ($mailSettings['transport_smtp_encrypt'] ?? '') ?: null;
+                $useEncryption = (bool)($mailSettings['transport_smtp_encrypt'] ?? false) ?: null;
                 // Create transport
                 $transport = new EsmtpTransport($host, $port, $useEncryption);
                 // Need authentication?
diff --git a/typo3/sysext/core/Configuration/DefaultConfigurationDescription.yaml b/typo3/sysext/core/Configuration/DefaultConfigurationDescription.yaml
index 57b58c22151540c1641de70e0ea2b8bdd127c97c..41274d8c1427f16e74e0aa93f4b33092fcc381e5 100644
--- a/typo3/sysext/core/Configuration/DefaultConfigurationDescription.yaml
+++ b/typo3/sysext/core/Configuration/DefaultConfigurationDescription.yaml
@@ -528,8 +528,8 @@ MAIL:
             type: text
             description: '<em>only with transport=smtp</em>: &lt;server:port> of mailserver to connect to. &lt;port> defaults to "25".'
         transport_smtp_encrypt:
-            type: text
-            description: '<em>only with transport=smtp</em>: Connect to the server using the specified transport protocol. Requires openssl library. Usually available: <em>ssl, sslv2, sslv3, tls</em>. Check <a href="http://www.php.net/stream_get_transports" target="_blank rel="noreferrer"">stream_get_transports()</a>.'
+            type: bool
+            description: '<em>only with transport=smtp</em>: Connect to the server using a secured transport protocol.'
         transport_smtp_username:
             type: text
             description: '<em>only with transport=smtp</em>: If your SMTP server requires authentication, enter your username here.'