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Implement advanced SMTP authentication options for alerts and subscriptions in Qlik Cloud

Daniele_Purrone — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 12:33:19 GMT

In October 2022, Microsoft will discourage using Basic SMTP authentication for Exchange Online in October 2022.
While it will be possible to re-enable it back, even on a per-user basis, IT admins and security officers might want to follow the recommendation (quote: "you still should move away from using Basic and SMTP AUTH though if you can, as it does leave you exposed") and disable Basic SMTP auth completely.
Other email providers will surely consider disabling Basic SMTP auth as well, making it impossible to use their email services with Qlik Cloud.

Recently, even Google announced that they will stop supporting "less secure applications", so Gmail users won't be able to use basic smtp.

Qlik Cloud at the moment only supports basic SMTP auth for alerts and subscriptions.
While Qlik is discussing internally how to better address this, this idea will help push the necessary changes so that more secure authentication processes are implemented in the product.

Re: Implement advanced SMTP authentication options for alerts and subscriptions in Qlik Cloud - Status changed to: Open - Collecting Feedback

Jeffrey_Goldberg — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 16:05:55 GMT

Hi @Daniele_Purrone ,

You are correct, we have been doing research and discussing it. As you point out, both Google and Microsoft want customers to move away from using basic authentication for many of their services. In both Google and Microsoft's cases they are not disabling SMTP Auth if it has been used previously, and they are providing switches to turn it on where it's been turned off due to inactivity or non-use.

Here are some links:

Google: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255#zippy=%2Cif-less-secure-app-access-is-on-for-your-account%2Cif-less-secure-app-access-is-off-for-your-account%2Cuse-more-secure-apps%2Cuse-an-app-password

Microsoft: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/basic-authentication-and-exchange-online-september-2021-update/ba-p/2772210

There is another reason why Google and Microsoft want you to move away from using GMail and Exchange online as an SMTP relay...it costs them a lot to support it and they are not intended to be used as bulk email solutions (what SMTP auth is intended to support). Both services have some restrictive rate limiting in play for their cloud services that make the quality of service for supporting OAuth2 credentials on GMail and Exchange for alerting and subscriptions not a suitable option for Qlik to implement. It would transfer the problem from being an authorization issue to a bulk mail timing issue.

Both Google and Microsoft recommend using a bulk mail service purpose built to send out messages at scale. Notable options are Sendgrid, Mailchimp, and Mailgun. I posted more about this in response to Steve Dark's post on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stevedark_google-smtp-and-imap-to-break-in-qlik-apps-activity-6924324420228419585-Zyhe?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

So... what's Qlik going to do about it? Well, for now the current configuration works and will continue to work if you're using Google Workspace or Exchange Online. That said, I do highly recommend using a service like Sendgrid (they have a 100 emails per day free plan) which you can still use with userid and password by obtaining an API key. Another option is to use Qlik Application Automation because we have connectors for Sendgrid and Mailchimp available today.

We are investigating OAuth2 as an authorization scheme for SMTP from bulk mail solutions like I mentioned above. We have no plans to support individual email accounts tied to corporate email providers through OAuth2. These vendors are making it clear that bulk email is a misuse of their service.

Re: Implement advanced SMTP authentication options for alerts and subscriptions in Qlik Cloud

deepakfacs — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 05:35:03 GMT

Hi @Daniele_Purrone ,

Modern Auth is a must for LaHC ( Land and Housing ) Sydney too, we have been waiting for this functionality for almost a year now . As our Sec team, clearly said no for basic auth. Please prioritize with the Dev team, without this we cannot use Subscription & Alerts to Email.

-Deepak

Re: Implement advanced SMTP authentication options for alerts and subscriptions in Qlik Cloud

Daniele_Purrone — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 05:23:36 GMT

Thanks for the feedback @deepakfacs !
Please, refer to @Jeffrey_Goldberg comment up above, and check with your Sec team if it's ok for them to go via a third-party bulk emailing system, as this is Qlik's current plan on this matter.

Re: Implement advanced SMTP authentication options for alerts and subscriptions in Qlik Cloud

Spartan27215 — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 14:25:58 GMT

Using Send Grid, while it may work requires the stuff to be base 64 encoded which requires (if you are using Qlik Cloud) exporting a file to an external FTP server, encoding it, then re-importing it to send with Send Grid. Really NOT an acceptable solution. So the sooner the better. As it stands today automation email does not work for us.

From now on, please track this idea from the Ideation por...

Meghann_MacDonald — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 15:36:40 GMT

From now on, please track this idea from the Ideation portal.

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Meghann

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Re: Implement advanced SMTP authentication options for alerts and subscriptions in Qlik Cloud - Status changed to: Closed - Archived

Ideation — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 15:36:42 GMT