PayPal IPN acknowledgements failing with SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure

Question

With no changes on our side and perhaps related to POODLE/SSL3 our PayPal API call to PPIPNMessage::validate is now failing with.

SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTE         


        

Answer 1

This is the same problem as Error 0x1408F10B: "SSL3_GET_RECORD:wrong version number" with PayPal SDK

The version of PayPal API we are using hard codes CURLOPT_SSLVERSION to 3.

Our fix is to insert this before any PayPal calls.

PPHttpConfig::$DEFAULT_CURL_OPTS[CURLOPT_SSLVERSION] = 4;

Answer 2

For Me None of these things mentioned in the other answers worked but, I was able to figure out the fix and it's along the same lines, but took me a while to find out what file the sdk I was using put its curl config as there was no ipn listener file and that "PPHttpConfig" would give me a fatal error

so I found this is the listener file they are using now:

PayPal-PHP-SDK/paypal/rest-api-sdk-php/lib/PayPal/Core/PayPalHttpConfig.php

I found inside

CURLOPT_SSLVERSION => 1

I changed it to:

CURLOPT_SSLVERSION => 4

and that fixed it for me.

Answer 3

I had the same problem... Just change the following line on the ipnlistener.php

from:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, 3);

to:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, 4);

ipnlistener.php

<?php
/**
* PayPal IPN Listener
*
* A class to listen for and handle Instant Payment Notifications (IPN) from
* the PayPal server.
*
* https://github.com/Quixotix/PHP-PayPal-IPN
*
* @package PHP-PayPal-IPN
* @author Micah Carrick
* @copyright (c) 2012 - Micah Carrick
* @version 2.1.0
*/
class IpnListener {

    /**
* If true, the recommended cURL PHP library is used to send the post back
* to PayPal. If flase then fsockopen() is used. Default true.
*
* @var boolean
*/
    public $use_curl = true;

    /**
* If true, explicitly sets cURL to use SSL version 3. Use this if cURL
* is compiled with GnuTLS SSL.
*
* @var boolean
*/
    public $force_ssl_v3 = true;

    /**
* If true, cURL will use the CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION to follow any
* "Location: ..." headers in the response.
*
* @var boolean
*/
    public $follow_location = false;

    /**
* If true, an SSL secure connection (port 443) is used for the post back
* as recommended by PayPal. If false, a standard HTTP (port 80) connection
* is used. Default true.
*
* @var boolean
*/
    public $use_ssl = true;

    /**
* If true, the paypal sandbox URI www.sandbox.paypal.com is used for the
* post back. If false, the live URI www.paypal.com is used. Default false.
*
* @var boolean
*/
    public $use_sandbox = false;

    /**
* The amount of time, in seconds, to wait for the PayPal server to respond
* before timing out. Default 30 seconds.
*
* @var int
*/
    public $timeout = 30;

    private $post_data = array();
    private $post_uri = '';
    private $response_status = '';
    private $response = '';

    const PAYPAL_HOST = 'www.paypal.com';
    const SANDBOX_HOST = 'www.sandbox.paypal.com';

    /**
* Post Back Using cURL
*
* Sends the post back to PayPal using the cURL library. Called by
* the processIpn() method if the use_curl property is true. Throws an
* exception if the post fails. Populates the response, response_status,
* and post_uri properties on success.
*
* @param string The post data as a URL encoded string
*/
    protected function curlPost($encoded_data) {

        if ($this->use_ssl) {
            $uri = 'https://'.$this->getPaypalHost().'/cgi-bin/webscr';
            $this->post_uri = $uri;
        } else {
            $uri = 'http://'.$this->getPaypalHost().'/cgi-bin/webscr';
            $this->post_uri = $uri;
        }

        $ch = curl_init();

                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, true);
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, 2);
                curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CAINFO,
                 dirname(__FILE__)."/cert/api_cert_chain.crt");
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $uri);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $encoded_data);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, $this->follow_location);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, $this->timeout);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, true);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, 4);

        if ($this->force_ssl_v3) {
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, 4); //Modified from 3 to 4
        }

        $this->response = curl_exec($ch);
        $this->response_status = strval(curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE));

        if ($this->response === false || $this->response_status == '0') {
            $errno = curl_errno($ch);
            $errstr = curl_error($ch);
            throw new Exception("cURL error: [$errno] $errstr");
        }
    }

    /**
* Post Back Using fsockopen()
*
* Sends the post back to PayPal using the fsockopen() function. Called by
* the processIpn() method if the use_curl property is false. Throws an
* exception if the post fails. Populates the response, response_status,
* and post_uri properties on success.
*
* @param string The post data as a URL encoded string
*/
    protected function fsockPost($encoded_data) {

        if ($this->use_ssl) {
            $uri = 'ssl://'.$this->getPaypalHost();
            $port = '443';
            $this->post_uri = $uri.'/cgi-bin/webscr';
        } else {
            $uri = $this->getPaypalHost(); // no "http://" in call to fsockopen()
            $port = '80';
            $this->post_uri = 'http://'.$uri.'/cgi-bin/webscr';
        }

        $fp = fsockopen($uri, $port, $errno, $errstr, $this->timeout);

        if (!$fp) {
            // fsockopen error
            throw new Exception("fsockopen error: [$errno] $errstr");
        }

        $header = "POST /cgi-bin/webscr HTTP/1.1\r\n";
        $header .= "Host: ".$this->getPaypalHost()."\r\n";
        $header .= "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n";
        $header .= "Content-Length: ".strlen($encoded_data)."\r\n";
        $header .= "Connection: Close\r\n\r\n";

        fputs($fp, $header.$encoded_data."\r\n\r\n");

        while(!feof($fp)) {
            if (empty($this->response)) {
                // extract HTTP status from first line
                $this->response .= $status = fgets($fp, 1024);
                $this->response_status = trim(substr($status, 9, 4));
            } else {
                $this->response .= fgets($fp, 1024);
            }
        }

        fclose($fp);
    }

    private function getPaypalHost() {
        if ($this->use_sandbox) return self::SANDBOX_HOST;
        else return self::PAYPAL_HOST;
    }

    /**
* Get POST URI
*
* Returns the URI that was used to send the post back to PayPal. This can
* be useful for troubleshooting connection problems. The default URI
* would be "ssl://www.sandbox.paypal.com:443/cgi-bin/webscr"
*
* @return string
*/
    public function getPostUri() {
        return $this->post_uri;
    }

    /**
* Get Response
*
* Returns the entire response from PayPal as a string including all the
* HTTP headers.
*
* @return string
*/
    public function getResponse() {
        return $this->response;
    }

    /**
* Get Response Status
*
* Returns the HTTP response status code from PayPal. This should be "200"
* if the post back was successful.
*
* @return string
*/
    public function getResponseStatus() {
        return $this->response_status;
    }

    /**
* Get Text Report
*
* Returns a report of the IPN transaction in plain text format. This is
* useful in emails to order processors and system administrators. Override
* this method in your own class to customize the report.
*
* @return string
*/
    public function getTextReport() {

        $r = '';

        // date and POST url
        for ($i=0; $i<80; $i++) { $r .= '-'; }
        $r .= "\n[".date('m/d/Y g:i A').'] - '.$this->getPostUri();
        if ($this->use_curl) $r .= " (curl)\n";
        else $r .= " (fsockopen)\n";

        // HTTP Response
        for ($i=0; $i<80; $i++) { $r .= '-'; }
        $r .= "\n{$this->getResponse()}\n";

        // POST vars
        for ($i=0; $i<80; $i++) { $r .= '-'; }
        $r .= "\n";

        foreach ($this->post_data as $key => $value) {
            $r .= str_pad($key, 25)."$value\n";
        }
        $r .= "\n\n";

        return $r;
    }

    /**
* Process IPN
*
* Handles the IPN post back to PayPal and parsing the response. Call this
* method from your IPN listener script. Returns true if the response came
* back as "VERIFIED", false if the response came back "INVALID", and
* throws an exception if there is an error.
*
* @param array
*
* @return boolean
*/
    public function processIpn($post_data=null) {

        $encoded_data = 'cmd=_notify-validate';

        if ($post_data === null) {
            // use raw POST data
            if (!empty($_POST)) {
                $this->post_data = $_POST;
                $encoded_data .= '&'.file_get_contents('php://input');
            } else {
                throw new Exception("No POST data found.");
            }
        } else {
            // use provided data array
            $this->post_data = $post_data;

            foreach ($this->post_data as $key => $value) {
                $encoded_data .= "&$key=".urlencode($value);
            }
        }

        if ($this->use_curl) $this->curlPost($encoded_data);
        else $this->fsockPost($encoded_data);

        if (strpos($this->response_status, '200') === false) {
            throw new Exception("Invalid response status: ".$this->response_status);
        }

        if (strpos($this->response, "VERIFIED") !== false) {
            return true;
        } elseif (strpos($this->response, "INVALID") !== false) {
            return false;
        } else {
            throw new Exception("Unexpected response from PayPal.");
        }
    }

    /**
* Require Post Method
*
* Throws an exception and sets a HTTP 405 response header if the request
* method was not POST.
*/
    public function requirePostMethod() {
        // require POST requests
        if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] && $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] != 'POST') {
            header('Allow: POST', true, 405);
            throw new Exception("Invalid HTTP request method.");
        }
    }
}
?>

Answer 4

SSLv3 is no more available for www.paypal.com:

# sslscan www.paypal.com|grep Accepted
Accepted  TLSv1  256 bits  AES256-SHA
Accepted  TLSv1  128 bits  AES128-SHA
Accepted  TLSv1  168 bits  DES-CBC3-SHA
Accepted  TLSv1  128 bits  RC4-SHA
Accepted  TLSv1  128 bits  RC4-MD5

You should change your CURLOPT_SSLVERSION to TLSv1:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, CURL_SSLVERSION_TLSv1);

(This "CURL_SSLVERSION_TLSv1"-constant is not available for older PHP Versions, so another way is to remove simply the CURLOPT_SSLVERSION enforcement.)

Answer 5

PayPal disabled SSLv3 in response to the "POODLE" vunerability. Read about it here: PayPal Response

If you are using ipnlistener.php, force TLS 1.2 as the SSL Protocol:

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, CURL_SSLVERSION_TLSv1_2); 

(Updated: TLS V1.2 required for 2017)

Note: PayPal is upgrading the protocols used to secure all external connections made to their systems. Transport Layer Security version 1.2 (TLS 1.2) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol version 1.1 (HTTP/1.1) will become mandatory for communication with PayPal in 2018. See their Security Roadmap

Answer 6

Use this setting in your paypal class on calling function PPHttpPost()

curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false); 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST, false); 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSLVERSION, 6); //6 is for TLSV1.2