Email approvals from Outlook desktop result in "reply could not be understood" in RSA Identity Governance & Lifecycle
Originally Published: 2020-09-22
Article Number
Applies To
RSA Version/Condition: 7.1.1, 7.2.0, 7.2.1
Issue
aveksaServer.log records error messages similar to the following:
05/01/2020 14:00:27.566 ERROR (ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider) [com.aveksa.server.email.mailboxmonitor.ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider] Failed to send response to user informing them that their reply was not parsable. Message Details=05/01/2020 14:00:27.566 ERROR (ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider) [com.aveksa.server.email.mailboxmonitor.ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider] Failed to send response to user informing them that their reply was not parsable. Message Details=FROM: "Smith, John" <JSmith@aveksa.com>REPLY TO: "Smith, John" <JSmith@aveksa.com>TO: =?Windows-1252?Q?GM_=96_Access_Approvals?= <access-approvals@aveksa.com>Subject: RE:Identity & Access - 14798 - Approval Required <AV-22275-REF>SendDate: Fri May 01 13:45:51 UTC 2020\AnsweredCONTENT-TYPE: text/html; charset=Windows-1252---------------------------
java.lang.NullPointerException at com.aveksa.server.email.common.EmailUtils.guessContentType(EmailUtils.java:665) at com.aveksa.server.email.mailboxmonitor.ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider.sendEmailResponse(ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider.java:556) at com.aveksa.server.email.mailboxmonitor.ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider.sendEmailResponse(ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider.java:466) at com.aveksa.server.email.mailboxmonitor.ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider.handleCouldNotParseEmail(ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider.java:740) at com.aveksa.server.email.mailboxmonitor.ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider.emailArrived(ApprovalInboxProcessorServiceProvider.java:1051) at com.aveksa.server.email.mailboxmonitor.MailboxMonitorThread.checkForMail(MailboxMonitorThread.java:186) at com.aveksa.server.email.mailboxmonitor.MailboxMonitorThread.run(MailboxMonitorThread.java:52)
When replying from Outlook Web Access (OWA), the emails are understood and parsed correctly.
Cause
This issue occurs with email replies sent from Microsoft Outlook version 12527.208880 and later.
Outlook email in HTML format separates the Action:Accept verb from the comments by an HTML <BR> tag instead of a new line.
Resolution
- RSA Identity Governance & Lifecycle 7.1.1 P11
- RSA Identity Governance & Lifecycle 7.2.0 P05
- RSA Identity Governance & Lifecycle 7.2.1 P01
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