Javamail gmail and OAuth2

Question

I'm trying to use the latest javamail 1.6.0 api in a web app (java 1.8/tomcat8) to send email on behalf of client users of the app. Some clients use gmail. I don't want to ask them to enable access to insecure apps in their google accounts as suggested by the javamail FAQ, and I'm willing to implement oauth2 if that's what it takes.

To do that, I did the following on google developer console:

• created an app
• created oauth2 credentials for the app (clientid, clientsecret)
• granted the app access to gmail api

Then, I implemented the oauth2 flow in my app using the google oauth client

The authorization redirect is constructed:

String url = 
        new GoogleAuthorizationCodeRequestUrl(clientId, 
            redirectUrl, 
            Collections.singleton(GmailScopes.GMAIL_SEND)
            ).setAccessType("offline").build();

That successfully redirects to the google site where I can authenticate and authorize my app to send mail on my behalf. It successfully redirects back to my app after I authorize, and the app processes the authorization code:

GoogleTokenResponse response =
                new GoogleAuthorizationCodeTokenRequest(
                        new NetHttpTransport(), 
                        new JacksonFactory(),
                      clientId, 
                      clientSecret,
                      code, 
                      redirectUrl)
                .execute();

(where code is the returned authorization code) This seems to work, and returns an access token and refresh token. (I can also go back to my google account settings and see that I have authorized the app to send email.

So now I want to try to use the access token to send mail through the javamail api using my gmail username (the one I logged in as to authorize the app), the access token, and the following settings:

host = "smtp.gmail.com";
port = 587;
props.put("mail.smtp.auth", "true");
props.put("mail.smtp.starttls.enable", "true");
props.put("mail.smtp.auth.mechanisms", "XOAUTH2");

The javamail code works fine for other smtp servers. I also turned on debug to trace the smtp flow

DEBUG: JavaMail version 1.6.0
DEBUG: successfully loaded resource: /META-INF/javamail.default.providers
DEBUG: Tables of loaded providers
DEBUG: Providers Listed By Class Name: {com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSSLTransport=javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtps,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSSLTransport,Oracle], com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport=javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtp,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport,Oracle], com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPSSLStore=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,imaps,com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPSSLStore,Oracle], com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3SSLStore=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3s,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3SSLStore,Oracle], com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPStore=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,imap,com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPStore,Oracle], com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3Store=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3Store,Oracle]}
DEBUG: Providers Listed By Protocol: {imaps=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,imaps,com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPSSLStore,Oracle], imap=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,imap,com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPStore,Oracle], smtps=javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtps,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSSLTransport,Oracle], pop3=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3Store,Oracle], pop3s=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3s,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3SSLStore,Oracle], smtp=javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtp,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport,Oracle]}
DEBUG: successfully loaded resource: /META-INF/javamail.default.address.map
DEBUG: getProvider() returning javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtp,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport,Oracle]
DEBUG SMTP: useEhlo true, useAuth true
DEBUG SMTP: trying to connect to host "smtp.gmail.com", port 587, isSSL false
220 smtp.gmail.com ESMTP c7sm3632131pfg.29 - gsmtp
DEBUG SMTP: connected to host "smtp.gmail.com", port: 587

EHLO 10.0.0.5
250-smtp.gmail.com at your service, [216.165.225.194]
250-SIZE 35882577
250-8BITMIME
250-STARTTLS
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-PIPELINING
250-CHUNKING
250 SMTPUTF8
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "SIZE", arg "35882577"
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "8BITMIME", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "STARTTLS", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "PIPELINING", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "CHUNKING", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "SMTPUTF8", arg ""
STARTTLS
220 2.0.0 Ready to start TLS
EHLO 10.0.0.5
250-smtp.gmail.com at your service, [216.165.225.194]
250-SIZE 35882577
250-8BITMIME
250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN XOAUTH2 PLAIN-CLIENTTOKEN OAUTHBEARER XOAUTH
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-PIPELINING
250-CHUNKING
250 SMTPUTF8
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "SIZE", arg "35882577"
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "8BITMIME", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "AUTH", arg "LOGIN PLAIN XOAUTH2 PLAIN-CLIENTTOKEN OAUTHBEARER XOAUTH"
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "PIPELINING", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "CHUNKING", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: Found extension "SMTPUTF8", arg ""
DEBUG SMTP: protocolConnect login, host=smtp.gmail.com, user=<[email protected]>, password=<non-null>
DEBUG SMTP: Attempt to authenticate using mechanisms: XOAUTH2
DEBUG SMTP: Using mechanism XOAUTH2
DEBUG SMTP: AUTH XOAUTH2 command trace suppressed
DEBUG SMTP: AUTH XOAUTH2 failed, THROW: 


 javax.mail.AuthenticationFailedException: OAUTH2 asked for more
...
DEBUG SMTP: AUTH XOAUTH2 failed
ERROR 2017-08-06 18:39:57,443  - send: 334 eyJzdGF0dXMiOiI0MDAiLCJzY2hlbWVzIjoiQmVhcmVyIiwic2NvcGUiOiJodHRwczovL21haWwuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8ifQ==

decoding that last line I see that the error is a 400 status, that I interpret to mean that the token is not valid.

I also verified that the token is good using the google rest api:

https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/tokeninfo?access_token=<token>

I also tried using port 465 with ssl enabled, but got the same error.

what am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

This is an addition to the answer of user2000974. The documentation of Google about using OAuth to authenticate to an IMAP or SMTP server Gmail > IMAP > OAuth 2.0 Mechanism clearly states the following

This document defines the SASL XOAUTH2 mechanism for use with the IMAP AUTHENTICATE and SMTP AUTH commands. This mechanism allows the use of OAuth 2.0 Access Tokens to authenticate to a user's Gmail account.

The scope for IMAP and SMTP access is https://mail.google.com/.

I hope this will direct people that stumble upon this question in the future to the right documentation page.