Apple

There are times when I receive an email from a Windows user and I can't reply with encryption. The reason is their email address doesn't match the email address in their certificate. Shawn has already discussed why this is happening. The weird thing is Outlook seems to be configured properly, with all lower-case letters in the email. A co-worker checked one of the people's settings in Outlook and it is using a lower case h (hername1). He had her send him a test email today and sure enough a capital H showed up in her email address.

So he just did some checking in Active Directory and found something odd about her and another's entry. Both of them have a capital first letter in their home directory field and others he checked do not. All the other fields in AD for them are lower case, it's only the home directory field that has a capital letter. The people with initial caps in their home directory, but not in their Outlook settings, cause problems with email and encryption. The one's with lowercase letters in everything do not. (The names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty.)

Home Directory: /home/karjack1
Home Directory: /home/Manwar1
Home Directory: /home/Hername1
Home Directory: /home/boss2

So is the Exchange server doing some kind of validation to the address? Why would the home directory name come into play? Has anyone else seen this problem and know what needs to be fixed? I know changing the home directory to match the email address should work but why should it matter?

Peter Link

Cyber Security Analyst

Cyber Security Program

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

PO Box 808, L-315

Livermore, CA 94550

email@hidden

The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect the views or position of the U.S. Department of Energy, Federal Government, National Nuclear Security Administration, Lawrence Livermore National Security, or Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.