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After upgrading to 10.10.4 SMTP breaks

Yosemite version 10.10.4 broke my connection with institutional SMTP server (mail.ippt.pan.pl). I can read emails but cannot reply. Gmail still sends OK.

Removing account, installing again, playing with ssl, ports etc - no result.

Any idea what was changed in security? Previous version of Yosemite (after rebootiong from CCC USB disk) still works fine. Hence, it is pretty sure upgrade fault.

Tomasz

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 10, 2015 4:14 AM

Reply
5 replies

Jul 10, 2015 6:07 AM in response to tkowale

Take each of the following steps that you haven't already tried, testing after each one. Back up all data before making any changes.

Step 1

From the Mail menu bar, select

Window ▹ Connection Doctor

Double-click the problem SMTP (outgoing mail) account in the window that opens. it. Another window will open, showing a list of all the outgoing mail accounts. The one you clicked will be selected.

Select the Advanced tab in the settings for the account and check the box marked

Automatically detect and maintain account settings

if it's not already checked.

If there's more than one problem account, repeat. Close the window and save the changes.

Step 2

Open the SMTP server list again. Make a note of the settings of the problem server, then click the minus-sign button to delete it, and confirm. Click the plus-sign button and recreate the account with the same settings.

Step 3

Quit Mail if it's running. Launch the Keychain Access application and enter the name of the outgoing mail server in the search box. For example, if you use Gmail, enter

smtp.gmail.com

Make a note of the password, then delete the keychain item(s). The next time Mail connects to the server, it will prompt for the password. Enter it and save the password in the keychain.

Step 4

The mail server may be using a weak, obsolete form of encryption to secure its communications with the clients. The update to OS X 10.10.4 changed the behavior of Mail and other applications so that they no longer tolerate weak security.

Log into the mail account on the website and see whether there is a security setting you can change. I can't be more specific. Refer to the service provider's documentation.

If there is no setting, persuade the server administrator to upgrade the server's security. He or she should do that anyway. Weak security affects all clients, not just Mac users.

Otherwise, you don't have any good options for continuing use Mail with the service. You could disable SSL in the advanced account settings, but that's very unsafe and may not work at all.

You might be able to get a more flexible mail client, such as "Thunderbird," to work with the service, or maybe you can access it via webmail.

Ideally you should switch to a better mail service provider. You wouldn't have this problem with a well-run service. The risks of weak SSL have been known for a long time, and competent server administrators have already taken the simple steps needed to avoid those risks.

Jul 15, 2015 1:51 AM in response to tkowale

Sorry, however story is not finished. Our smtp still does not work with any of ugraded iMac, Iphone or Ipad.

First of all, it is for sure issue of 10.10.4, as I wrote downgrading to 10.10.3 solves problem/

Secondly I asked our server administrator and here is his answer:

________

We just passed the procedure from Step 1 to Step 4 but still SMTP on iPhone or iMac doesn’t work properly.

What was done? Openssl upgrade at the beginning then we generated new self-signed certificate with 2048 bits group key (SHA1 was replaced by RSA256) and new unique Diffie-Hellman group file (dhparams.pem file with corresponding path in sendmail.cf file). Sendmail service was restarted.

The Qualys SSL labs tool for server or other recommended tool (https://weakdh.org/sysadmin.html) couldn’t connect to our mail server (mail.ippt.pan.pl) so it’s hard to debug. I don’t know why the Qualys tool wants to check our web server instead the mail server. The weakdh tool shows that couldn’t connect.

Please give us some advice, SMTP is critical service in our work.

Regards,

Peter Zarebski

IT IPPT PAN

Jul 15, 2015 1:53 AM in response to Linc Davis

Sorry, however story is not finished. Our smtp still does not work with any of ugraded iMac, Iphone or Ipad.

First of all, it is for sure issue of 10.10.4, as I wrote downgrading to 10.10.3 solves problem/

Secondly I asked our server administrator and here is his answer:

________

We just passed the procedure from Step 1 to Step 4 but still SMTP on iPhone or iMac doesn’t work properly.

What was done? Openssl upgrade at the beginning then we generated new self-signed certificate with 2048 bits group key (SHA1 was replaced by RSA256) and new unique Diffie-Hellman group file (dhparams.pem file with corresponding path in sendmail.cf file). Sendmail service was restarted.

The Qualys SSL labs tool for server or other recommended tool (https://weakdh.org/sysadmin.html) couldn’t connect to our mail server (mail.ippt.pan.pl) so it’s hard to debug. I don’t know why the Qualys tool wants to check our web server instead the mail server. The weakdh tool shows that couldn’t connect.

Please give us some advice, SMTP is critical service in our work.

Regards,

Peter Zarebski

IT IPPT PAN

After upgrading to 10.10.4 SMTP breaks

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