Author Topic: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies  (Read 4653 times)

Urbi

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I am receiving weekly via mail some newsletters from German food or electronic companies. These emails consist of html with lots of embedded images loaded from an external server. Everything worked well until a couple of months ago (of course I authorized sender to automatically download images from the external server). From one day to another all images in newsletter from company Aldi were no longer displayed. And a couple of weeks later, also newsletters from company Pollin were only shown without images. For all other emails or newsletters images are still displayed normally. I am assuming that companies Aldi and Pollin changed something in ther email/newsletter structure, because the error occurs on two different Android devices and nothing was changed on my hardware or software in between. I've also disabled all ad blockers and security suites, but no effect.
Has anyone experienced the same? What may be the reason? Is there any solution?

Justin

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2018, 12:32:44 am »
Same experience with every kind of data connection? Which mobile provider?

Urbi

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2018, 01:55:43 pm »
Yes, same effect independent of WIFI or 3G.
FYI: Today I've contacted both companies hoping to get some information whether or not they changed something regarding the format of their newsletters (change from html version xy to xml version yz or something like that).

Urbi

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2018, 03:17:58 pm »
See screenshots attached. After enabling download of images the newsletters are appearing in normal layout, but without any images loaded.

Kostya Vasilyev

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2018, 09:17:56 pm »
First please try rebooting the phone :)

Second we could investigate if you could send a sample or two to support / aqua-mail / dot com.

We'd need *exact original source code* of those messages. Do not just "forward as usual".

Please either:

- Forward as .eml attachments - if your desktop mail app or web mail can do it

OR

- Use web mail or maybe desktop mail app to "download raw message", "show original message" that sort of thing - save to a plain text file - attach as attachments

We're looking for something like this:

From: "foobar.ru" <info@foobar.ru>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Subject: this is a test

----=_---NextPart--=_-kldjfld
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable

Some text here

----=_---NextPart--=_-qRjQedfC2M
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable

<html><head></head><body><table width=3D"100%" cellpadding=3D"0"
.....

----=_---NextPart--=_-qRjQedfC2M--


That is, all of message source code with headers and all mime parts - not just the HTML text part.
Creating debug logs for diagnostics: https://www.aqua-mail.com/troubleshooting/

The official FAQ: https://www.aqua-mail.com/faq/

Лог-файлы для диагностики: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/troubleshooting/

Вопросы и ответы: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/faq/

Urbi

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2018, 09:57:58 pm »
Find enclosed 2 examples of each company newsletter as .eml file.

Meanwhile I've got a response from ALDI company. They told me that not loading of images may be due to encryption technology used, which could eventually not be displayed on older Android versions. Unfortunately, they didn't give any further information on that.

And I've tested the described error also on two other Android devices. Each time the same. For all other newsletters or emails the images coming from external servers are displayed without any problems, but NOT for the newsletters from companies ALDI and Pollin.

Regards
« Last Edit: September 01, 2018, 06:32:09 pm by Urbi »

Kostya Vasilyev

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2018, 10:55:45 pm »
Thank you for the samples.

I uploaded the first Aldi message to one of my accounts - and downloaded into Aqua Mail.

Here is what I got: they're from a Samsung S8 (Android 8.0) and Samsung S6 Edge (7.0). I made them smaller a bit.

Sounds like it could be a networking issue on your side (your phone or internet provider).

This is a link to the header image ("unser magazin") image, would you be able to open it in a web browser on the same phone?

https://www.aldi-nord.de/content/dam/aldi/germany/mailings/newsletter/2018/kw34/header_do_kw35.jpg
Creating debug logs for diagnostics: https://www.aqua-mail.com/troubleshooting/

The official FAQ: https://www.aqua-mail.com/faq/

Лог-файлы для диагностики: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/troubleshooting/

Вопросы и ответы: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/faq/

Urbi

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #7 on: August 31, 2018, 11:26:30 pm »
Looks like that indeed it is an encryption issue (like ALDI company assumed). When I try to open the link to the header image in my browser (Chrome) an error message comes "Data Security Error: This is not a secure connection". When I am manually allow the browser to go to the page, then the image is displayed.

Any idea which exact type of encryption that is which is not working, and whether there is any chance to implement this encryption technology in Android 4.x.x versions? Might it be a "simple" security certificate issue? If yes, how to manually add security certificates in Android? Is there any tool to keep the security certificates up to date when Android system fails to do so?

Regards

Kostya Vasilyev

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #8 on: September 01, 2018, 12:19:10 am »
Here is what I get on 4.4 (attached).

The issue is that Aldi's cert is issued by an authority (CA) that Android 4.* doesn't know about.

It's called: GeoTrust TLS RSA CA G1

https://knowledge.digicert.com/generalinformation/INFO1421.html

I *think* there is a way to install additional CA's into Android but I'm not sure of the exact procedure. You'd need to Google it, I can't help sorry.

Please also note that Aqua Mail is not "cloud based" and so connects to mail servers and web servers (for linked images) directly from your phone.
Creating debug logs for diagnostics: https://www.aqua-mail.com/troubleshooting/

The official FAQ: https://www.aqua-mail.com/faq/

Лог-файлы для диагностики: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/troubleshooting/

Вопросы и ответы: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/faq/

Urbi

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #9 on: September 01, 2018, 05:06:08 pm »
FYI: Only way to bring it to work so far is downloading the proper certificates with CAdroid and save/implement it as user defined certificates. Then the newsletters are displayed correctly, but big disadvantage is that the Android device then MUST have a lock screen PIN or password. On my rooted device I've tried also to implement the same certificates to system certificates (with Root Certificate Manager). Although implementation was successfull, it's NOT WORKING. According to various google hits it's impossible to bring it to work without lock screen. Therefore from my side we can close this "bug report". Thanks for your support!

Just in case anyone else brought it to work without look screen, let me know.

Regards,
Urbi

mikeone

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #10 on: September 01, 2018, 09:49:22 pm »
However, the root of the whole evil is the certificate used by Aldi:

Quote
This certificate isn't from a trusted authority
 

Kostya Vasilyev

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Re: Images not displayed in some e-mail newsletters from German companies
« Reply #11 on: September 04, 2018, 02:36:08 pm »
Re: This certificate isn't from a trusted authority

As far as Android 4.4 is concerned. It knows nothing about "GeoTrust TLS RSA CA G1" which is this cert's issuer.
Creating debug logs for diagnostics: https://www.aqua-mail.com/troubleshooting/

The official FAQ: https://www.aqua-mail.com/faq/

Лог-файлы для диагностики: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/troubleshooting/

Вопросы и ответы: https://www.aqua-mail.com/ru/faq/