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IBM Technote: Apple iOS 12 Mail, Calendar and Contacts fail to sync if HTTP Basic Authentication is not properly configured

 September 18 2018 06:40:25 PM
IBM published a new Technote today, regarding issues with Traveler and iOS 12 devices, when HTTP Basic Authentification is not properly configured

Image:IBM Technote: Apple iOS 12 Mail, Calendar and Contacts fail to sync if HTTP Basic Authentication is not properly configured


Apple iOS 12 Mail, Calendar and Contacts fail to sync if HTTP Basic Authentication is not properly configured


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Abstract


Starting with Apple iOS 12, native Mail, Calendar and Contacts applications fail to sync if HTTP Basic Authentication is not properly configured.

Content


Starting with Apple iOS 12, native Mail, Calendar and Contacts applications fail to sync if HTTP Basic Authentication is not properly configured.

Prior to Apple iOS 12, the device would send the HTTP Authorization with the user's credentials on the first request.  As long as the credentials were correct, the device would not get challenged for credentials and it would not matter if the challenge was an HTTP 401 response (correct) or not (such as an HTTP 200  form login HTML response).  

But starting with Apple iOS 12, the device no longer sends the HTTP Authorization header on the initial request which means that it will always get a challenge response for the user's credentials; if this challenge is an HTTP 401 (basic authentication), the devices should continue to work, but if it is some other sort of challenge (such as an HTTP 200 with a form), the devices will be unable to connect to sync.

IBM Traveler has always documented that HTTP Basic Authentication is required (https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSYRPW_9.0.1/httpauthentication.html).  
Prior to Apple iOS 12, even improperly configured servers would allow the devices to sync because of the credentials being supplied without requiring a challenge.  But with the change on Apple iOS 12, properly configured HTTP Basic Authentication truly is required or the Apple iOS 12 devices running the native applications will be unable to sync.

Related information: Configuring IBM Traveler server - HTTP authentication



via IBM Technote

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