One month from today, we’re going to start to turn off basic authentication for specific protocols in Exchange Online.
Timeline and Scope
Table of Contents
As we communicated last year in blog posts and earlier this year in MC375736 , we will start to turn off basic authentication in our worldwide multi-tenant service on October 1, 2022. We will randomly select tenants, send 7-day warning Message Center posts, post Service Health Dashboard notices, and turn off basic auth in the tenant.
We’re turning off basic auth for the following protocols: MAPI, RPC, Offline Address Book (OAB), Exchange Web Services (EWS), POP, IMAP, Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) and Remote PowerShell.
We are not changing any settings or turning off SMTP AUTH.
What If You Are Not Ready for This Change?
We recognize many tenants may still be unprepared for this change.
Today we announced an update to our plan to offer customers who are unaware or otherwise not ready for this change. You can read this announcement here.
What should I do to prepare for this change?
Any client (user app, script, integration, etc.) using basic auth for an affected protocol will be unable to connect. The app will receive an HTTP 401 error: bad username or password. Any app using modern auth for these protocols will be unaffected.
If you are unsure if you have clients or apps that will be affected by this change, you can check the Azure AD Sign-In logs, or just check Message Center for any messages titled, ‘Basic Authentication – Monthly Usage Report’. We will send the usage report for August in the next few days. If you cannot see any of these messages, we have not detected basic authentication on the affected protocols in your tenant.
Learn more
To read more on what can be done to switch apps from basic to modern auth please view our main documentation page and our latest blog.
Message ID: MC424238
Published: 01 September 2022
Updated: 01 September 2022
Alex Lim
Alex Lim is a certified IT Technical Support Architect with over 15 years of experience in designing, implementing, and troubleshooting complex IT systems and networks. He has worked for leading IT companies, such as Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco, providing technical support and solutions to clients across various industries and sectors. Alex has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the National University of Singapore and a master’s degree in information security from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also the author of several best-selling books on IT technical support, such as The IT Technical Support Handbook and Troubleshooting IT Systems and Networks. Alex lives in Bandar, Johore, Malaysia with his wife and two chilrdren. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Website | Twitter | Facebook
