PHPMailer and Gmail API Mysterious ‘Could not connect’ Error on Windows

I’ve had PHPMailer happily sending email through the Gmail API (as part of a G Suite subscription) for a while now and it mysteriously stopped working yesterday (29th Sep, 2017), throwing the following output with debug enabled:

2017-09-30 11:24:52 SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 smtp.gmail.com ESMTP v2sm1805443wmf.8 - gsmtp
2017-09-30 11:24:52 CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO trog-pc
2017-09-30 11:24:52 SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-smtp.gmail.com at your service, [86.170.8.39]
250-SIZE 35882577
250-8BITMIME
250-STARTTLS
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-PIPELINING
250-CHUNKING
250 SMTPUTF8
2017-09-30 11:24:52 CLIENT -> SERVER: STARTTLS
2017-09-30 11:24:52 SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 2.0.0 Ready to start TLS
2017-09-30 11:24:52 SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host.
2017-09-30 11:24:52 CLIENT -> SERVER: QUIT
2017-09-30 11:24:52 SERVER -> CLIENT: M I A ��] P *g�� 87� �*��h�!T��
[multiple line binary gibberish removed]
2017-09-30 11:24:52 SMTP ERROR: QUIT command failed: M I A ��] P *g�� 87� �*��h�!T�� [multiple line binary gibberish removed]
2017-09-30 11:24:52 SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting
Mailer Error: SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting

It looks pretty clearly like a crypto error and the step in the Troubleshooting guide (helpfully provided in the error message!) relating to the OpenSSL check made it seem pretty clear that it was a problem.

The OpenSSL test result looked like this:

C:\files\Apps\OpenSSL>openssl s_client -starttls smtp -crlf -connect smtp.gmail.com:587
CONNECTED(0000019C)
depth=1 C = US, O = Google Trust Services, CN = Google Internet Authority G3
verify error:num=20:unable to get local issuer certificate
---
Certificate chain
0 s:/C=US/ST=California/L=Mountain View/O=Google Inc/CN=smtp.gmail.com
i:/C=US/O=Google Trust Services/CN=Google Internet Authority G3
1 s:/C=US/O=Google Trust Services/CN=Google Internet Authority G3
i:/OU=GlobalSign Root CA - R2/O=GlobalSign/CN=GlobalSign
---
Server certificate
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----
subject=/C=US/ST=California/L=Mountain View/O=Google Inc/CN=smtp.gmail.com
issuer=/C=US/O=Google Trust Services/CN=Google Internet Authority G3
---
No client certificate CA names sent
Peer signing digest: SHA256
Server Temp Key: ECDH, P-256, 256 bits
---
SSL handshake has read 3246 bytes and written 468 bytes
---
New, TLSv1/SSLv3, Cipher is ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
Server public key is 2048 bit
Secure Renegotiation IS supported
Compression: NONE
Expansion: NONE
No ALPN negotiated
SSL-Session:
Protocol : TLSv1.2
Cipher : ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
Session-ID: 927522CACEB8BB3D0FB305E197235C64D147A4CC26643AB60EB5F110E787FA98
Session-ID-ctx:
Master-Key: 8D698AF5A7790DC4836430F2FA6157B310CF0DDA684B5160BEC643B966E9CCC41598D34D03DA0579893A6CAFB62C2B33
Key-Arg : None
PSK identity: None
PSK identity hint: None
SRP username: None
TLS session ticket lifetime hint: 100800 (seconds)
TLS session ticket:
0000 - 00 33 97 a3 0b be 7f 8d-47 f3 97 6c 18 bb 43 83 .3......G..l..C.
0010 - 27 a4 f7 01 2c d1 a8 0e-55 a9 3c c3 b3 6f 30 58 '...,...U.<..o0X
0020 - 89 22 e3 29 50 42 18 8e-29 ca be 27 57 f9 bc 6e .".)PB..)..'W..n
0030 - 25 f9 ed 68 6a ba 30 97-60 0b 32 fc 19 ab 83 10 %..hj.0.`.2.....
0040 - 00 d1 91 e7 1d 72 d9 2f-3f 27 ac 06 83 23 78 94 .....r./?'...#x.
0050 - 4d 59 38 7f 5d 70 2e ec-d9 d4 b3 31 c9 34 04 25 MY8.]p.....1.4.%
0060 - 79 a8 2f 49 66 ce c7 e3-67 de 46 58 43 b9 42 36 y./If...g.FXC.B6
0070 - 54 49 33 94 99 1e 7d 0b-87 4c da c5 a4 72 b1 05 TI3...}..L...r..
0080 - 5d 47 3b cf 33 13 69 41-f8 1d e4 a0 81 26 1c e5 ]G;.3.iA.....&..
0090 - a7 6b 9b 09 c8 db 1d 8f-6b 5e 54 eb d7 ed 9e 6c .k......k^T....l
00a0 - fc 1f f9 f8 3a d4 3a df-05 c7 0b a3 0b 66 c1 4e ....:.:......f.N
00b0 - 66 27 3c 64 03 60 81 1d-44 bb f0 a4 08 d0 96 dd f'<d.`..D.......
00c0 - 14 31 95 fd 23 7f 13 82-ed 15 fa fb 6a f5 ec 69 .1..#.......j..i
00d0 - c9 b1 d3 e9 fc .....

Start Time: 1506770618
Timeout : 300 (sec)
Verify return code: 20 (unable to get local issuer certificate)
---
250 SMTPUTF8

At first glance the Troubleshooting guide implies that the ‘unable to get local issuer certificate’ is safe to ignore – but it is only referring to the first instance of the error at the top. If you’re also seeing the error message at the bottom, you have the same problem as me.

The easy fix is to set verify_peer to false as it described in the Troubleshooting guide. But (also as it notes) this is dodgy and you should fix the local certificate store. So don’t do this.

After messing around a bit (including testing identical code on a Linux VM and seeing that it worked), I gritted my teeth and dove into the OpenSSL configuration (something which I’ve studiously avoided for years because everything has magically Just Worked for me).

It looks like OpenSSL didn’t have a local certificate store at all in Windows and it needs to be explicitly configured. I have no idea how it worked at all – maybe it was using some sort of embedded certificate that just expired? Or maybe I had changed some other option somewhere without realising (unlikely but I hate blaming gremlins).

Anyway, the fix is simple:

1) Download the latest cacert.pem file from the curl website

2) Plonk it somewhere on your local machine where PHP can get to it.

3) Update your php.ini’s openssl.cafile directive to point to this new file.

PHP’s OpenSSL should now have the local certificates. The OpenSSL test in the PHPMailer Troubleshooting guide should now “pass” and that final Verify return code: 20 (unable to get local issuer certificate) message should be replaced with Verify return code: 0 (ok). PHPMailer should also happily work again.

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