Gmail says: "the sender is unauthenticated"

Software Support
1

Describe the issue or problem
Please tell us what happens and what you expected to happen.

I use Gmail. When my journal (EJC/REC) sends me an email, the email bounces with the message “This mail has been blocked because the sender is unauthenticated.”

Apparently Gmail thinks the sender is “unauthenticated.”

See the following message text:

From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <MAILER-DAEMON@ejcojs.cios.org>
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2024 10:01 AM
To: bob.stromberg@gmail.com <bob.stromberg@gmail.com>
Subject: Undeliverable: [EJC/REC] Copyediting Request

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:

bob.stromberg@gmail.com
Your message wasn’t delivered because the recipient’s email provider rejected it.

The following organization rejected your message: gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com.

Diagnostic information for administrators:

Generating server: ejcojs.cios.org

bob.stromberg@gmail.com
gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com
Remote server returned ‘554 5.7.0 <gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com #5.7.26 SMTP; 550-5.7.26 This mail has been blocked because the sender is unauthenticated.>’

Original message headers:

Return-Path: <snm11@psu.edu> Received: from ejcojs.cios.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ejcojs.cios.org (8.15.2/8.15.2/Debian-18) with ESMTP id 42FE1mra1179368 for <bob.stromberg@gmail.com>; Fri, 15 Mar 2024 10:01:48 -0400 Received: (from www-data@localhost) by ejcojs.cios.org (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) id 42FE1mJn1179367; Fri, 15 Mar 2024 10:01:48 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: ejcojs.cios.org: www-data set sender to snm11@psu.edu using -f To: “Mr. Bob Stromberg” <bob.stromberg@gmail.com> Subject: [EJC/REC] Copyediting Request Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2024 14:01:48 +0000 From: Shaheed Nick Mohammed <snm11@psu.edu> Reply-To: Shaheed Nick Mohammed <snm11@psu.edu> Message-ID: <wbjoWIeXWlBcdEv8ZrPdbKdB7gq048F4J0Us56WwM@ejcojs.cios.org> X-Mailer: Public Knowledge Project Suite v3 X-Originating-IP: 64.22.37.19 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain

Steps I took leading up to the issue
For example:

  1. Go to ‘…’
  2. Click on ‘…’
  3. Scroll down to ‘…’
  4. See error

What application are you using?
OJS 3.3.0.13.

Additional information
Error message text pasted above.

Thanks! Bob Stromberg

2

Hello @rls2
Does this happens with all outgoing mails or just when the systema sends a mail to you?

It would be useful to know how you have configured your OJS to use GMail. AFAIK you have to enable 2 factor authentication and create an application key in GMail to use it as a password from OJS. Did you take all those steps?

3

Does this happens with all outgoing mails or just when the systema sends a mail to you?

RLS: This has happened once, when the system sends an email to me. I have not tried to send an email to the system.

It would be useful to know how you have configured your OJS to use GMail. AFAIK you have to enable 2 factor authentication and create an application key in GMail to use it as a password from OJS. Did you take all those steps?

RLS: I have had nothing to do with “configuring OJS to use Gmail.” I expect OJS to send me an email like any other sender. Any authentication I do with Gmail is between Gmail and my device (second factor, authentication key, or whatever). And, that authentication occurs when I open Gmail, not when OJS sends me an email. It would make no sense to provide OJS with my Gmail login credentials.

What does it mean to use Gmail “as a password from OJS”?

Thanks for working on this. – Bob

4

I might have found an explanation. However, I do not configure email senders so I don’t fully understand it. See:

https://powerdmarc.com/google-and-yahoo-email-authentication-requirements/

This explanation begins:

Google Email Sender Requirements for all Senders

If you are not a bulk email sender, you still need to follow some email authentication best practices for Gmail. Google has been encouraging users to follow safe-sender practices for a long time, irrespective of whether they send bulk emails or not.

If you send less than 5000 emails per day:

  • Email Senders must enable SPF or DKIM

Please follow the link for a more complete explanation.

Hope this helps
– Bob