STARTTLS for “SMTP Test 9, 16, 20 (Receive)”

[Michael Mall]

I am trying to get James SMTP server to accept STARTTLS connections in order to conduct a test on our system using the Edge Testing Tool (ETT) for Direct Messaging. In this case, the test in question is “SMTP Test 9, 16, 20 (Receive)” at https://ett.healthit.gov/ett/#/certification/certh2#test_SMTP%20Test%209,%2016,%2020%20(Receive) We are using Apache James 3.2, which is not the latest version, but which is a part of the Direct Project Java Reference Implementation Version 6. (See https://directprojectjavari.github.io/direct-project-stock/). We don’t want to change the James version we use because we don’t want to break any of the associated dependencies. When I set startTLS="true" in the <tls> sub-element of the <jmxName>smtpserver-global</jmxName> element of the smtpserver.xml file and restart James Server, then run the test, I get the following in the james.log file. 09:41:08.461 [ERROR] o.a.j.p.n.BasicChannelUpstreamHandler - Unable to process request java.lang.NullPointerException: null at org.bouncycastle.crypto.signers.PSSSigner.generateSignature(Unknown Source) at org.bouncycastle.jcajce.provider.asymmetric.rsa.PSSSignatureSpi.engineSign(Unknown Source) at java.security.Signature$Delegate.engineSign(Signature.java:1380) Can anyone suggest how to troubleshoot this?