EBS - Attention ! Workflow mailer & oAuTH2.0 and office365 - Microsoft / End of Support for Basic Auth - "Deadline has been pushed to the second half of 2021"

Thanks to the community in my forum (Erman Arslan's Oracle Forum), we realized something important and fortuneatly, it is still not to late to report this!

Thanks Laurel for pointing it out in the following thread :) -> 

http://erman-arslan-s-oracle-forum.2340467.n4.nabble.com/WF-mailer-and-oAuTH2-0-and-office365-td8771.html

First, Microsoft announced, that they will stop supporting Basic Authentication for Exchange online on October 13, 2020.  EAS, POP and IMAP..

But then, they changed the deadline .. That is, the Basic Auth is "not" going to be disabled on October 13, 2020. Due to the COVID... That deadline has been pushed to the second half of 2021. 

So, it seems we still have time. Good news, right? :)

Here is the statement about this new deadline; https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/basic-authentication-and-exchange-online-april-2020-update/ba-p/1275508

Microsoft says: In response to the COVID-19 crisis and knowing that priorities have changed for many of our customers we have decided to postpone disabling Basic Authentication in Exchange Online for those tenants still actively using it until the second half of 2021. We will provide a more precise date when we have a better understanding of the impact of the situation.

Anyways, when that time will come, workflow Mailer IMAP with Office 365 basic authentication will not be supported and probably it will just not work.(Basic authentication will be turned off)

EBS customers will have to use OAuth 2.0 token based authentication for IMAP.

So, EBS customers who are using Workflow mailer with office365 may be in trouble , and I think Microsoft is ready for this -> 

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/blogs/announcing-oauth-2-0-support-for-imap-smtp-client-protocols-in-exchange-online

They say : We’re announcing the availability of OAuth 2.0 authentication for IMAP, SMTP AUTH protocols to Exchange Online mailboxes. If you have an existing application that reads or sends email using one or more of these two protocols, the new OAuth authentication method will enable you to implement secure, modern authentication experiences for your users. This functionality is built on top of Microsoft Identity platform (v2.0) and supports access to email of Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) users.

Oracle address this situation by the following document ;

EBS Workflow Mailer Configuration with OAuth 2.0 Token-Based Authentication for Cloud-Based Email Services (Gmail, Yahoo, Office365, etc) (Doc ID 2650084.1)

Note that, this document is not up-to-date...

We have also a bug record, an Enhancement Request for it. 

Bug 30505419 : WORKFLOW MAILER SUPPORT OF OAUTH2 - GENERIC PLATFORMS

Unlike the document, the enhancement requests seems up-to-date. Oracle seems working on this subject as I see some recent updates on the bug record;

*** 09/11/20 08:45 am ***
*** 09/11/20 09:18 am RESPONSE ***

The Enhancement Request is in Internal Review status, meaning not approved nor denied.

However, currently we have no ETA for this. 

In any case, I think the solution/patch will be for EBS 12.2.x.. So, I think, upgrading to the latest version (12.2.10)  should not be a must.

But still, you need to design and implement your backup solution, because the ATG fix may not be ready until the second half of 2021.. ( Actually, I think there is enough time to deliver the fix, but still we need to be prepared)  

Especially EBS 12.1.3 customers should be careful and ready. 12.1.3 is also subject to restriction on new patches starting Dec 1, 2021 and a solution for 12.1.3 cannot be guaranteed until the final solution for EBS 12.2 connecting to Office365 will be developed.

In order to be in the safe side, customer should just create a local mail server, test it and be ready for activating it on the second half of 2021.. (just in case)

I will continue to follow this subject and keep you updated.