OLEXP: Outlook Express Does Not Send 128 -Bit Encrypted E-mail Messages by Using Digital IDs (262003)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Outlook Express 5.5 for Windows 98 Second Edition
  • Microsoft Outlook Express 5.01 for Windows 98 Second Edition
  • Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0 for Windows 98 Second Edition
  • Microsoft Outlook Express 5.5 for Windows 98
  • Microsoft Outlook Express 5.01 for Windows 98
  • Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0 for Windows 98
  • Microsoft Outlook Express 4.01 for Windows 98 SP 2
  • Microsoft Outlook Express 5.5 for Windows 2000
  • Microsoft Outlook Express 5.01 for Windows 2000
This article was previously published under Q262003

SUMMARY

If you download a Digital ID from or confirmed through a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server, Outlook Express does not use 128-bit encryption when sending an e-mail message by using this Digital ID.

If the Warn on encrypting messages with less than this strength security setting is set to 128 bit or more, you receive the following message:

This message is being sent with 40 bit encryption. Your Advanced Security options are set to warn on less than 128 bit encryption. Would you like to send this message anyway?

MORE INFORMATION

This issue is by design following the Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions 2 (S/MIME2) specification. There are many e-mail clients that do not support Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions 3 (S/MIME3), so the S/MIME2 default (RC2 40-bit) is used for encryption when Outlook Express does not know the capabilities of the recipient.

REFERENCES

For information about the S/MIME version 2 specification, please see section 2.6.2.4 of RFC 2311, "S/MIME Version 2 Message Specification." RFCs are available at the following Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Web site:

http://www.ietf.org

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Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:12/13/2002
Keywords:kbinfo KB262003
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