How to send SMTP email for office365 with python using tls/ssl

Question

I am trying to send an email from my office365 corporate account using python. I am new to python. This code previously worked when using my hotmail account, however now that I have a need to send confidential information, I must use my corporate email.

I have tried a couple things.

• Verified that my username and password is correct.
• Used both python2 and python3. Both give the same error: 535 5.7.3 Authentication unsuccessful
• I previously was using mailserver.starttls() when I got the above error, then after some research, I tried to pass a
  certificate.mailserver.starttls(certfile='office365.cer')

I am unclear on the certificate part, but my steps include, looking online to find out how to export a certificate. Using chrome browser, microsoftonline.com has a chain certificate. I can export the root and the level just below the root but not the last level. I dont know how to pass both of these files, so I have simply passed the root certificate. At this point I get the error: ssl.SSLError: [SSL] PEM lib (_ssl.c:3309)

i got stuck at this point. Any help is appreciated. Code used below

import smtplib

mailserver = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.office365.com',587)
mailserver.ehlo()
mailserver.starttls(certfile='office365.cer')
mailserver.ehlo()
mailserver.login('user@company.co', 'password')
mailserver.sendmail('user@company.co','user@company.co','python email')
mailserver.quit()

Answer 1

Well, you are almost there. The following code will do the trick:

import smtplib

mailserver = smtplib.SMTP('smtp.office365.com',587)
mailserver.ehlo()
mailserver.starttls()
mailserver.login('user@company.co', 'password')
#Adding a newline before the body text fixes the missing message body
mailserver.sendmail('user@company.co','user@company.co','\npython email')
mailserver.quit()

Use the following links for more information:

Python: Send Email via Office 365

https://docs.python.org/3/library/smtplib.html

https://gist.github.com/jasonjoh/3ec367594c3fa662ee983a617bdc7deb

Answer 2

I found a library that it's working for me:

https://github.com/O365/python-o365

https://pypi.python.org/pypi/O365

Install it using PIP and then:

from O365 import Message
o365_auth = ('YourAccount@office365.com','YourPassword')
m = Message(auth=o365_auth)
m.setRecipients('reciving@office365.com')
m.setSubject('I made an email script.')
m.setBody('Talk to the computer, cause the human does not want to hear it any more.')
m.sendMessage()

Answer 3

For me the answer provided by @Prometheus was giving "RuntimeError: No auth token found . Authentication Flow needed" as mentioned by a comment. It maybe because of my company email with 2fa enabled. So I had to follow steps provided in https://github.com/janscas/pyo365#authentication and https://pypi.org/project/O365/#authentication

To work with oauth you first need to register your application at Microsoft Application Registration Portal.

1. Login at Microsoft Application Registration Portal
2. Create an app, note your app id (client_id)
3. Generate a new password (client_secret) under "Application Secrets" section Under the "Platform" section, add a new Web platform and set https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/nativeclient" as the redirect URL
4. Goto API permissions > Add permission > Microsoft Graph > Delegated permissions, add the permissions below:

   • IMAP.AccessAsUser.All

   • Mail.Send

   • POP.AccessAsUser.All

   • User.Read

   • SMTP.Send

   • offline_access # If you want refresh token to be avaialble in o365_token.txt. Otherwise you need to get access token every 1hr.

5. Run below python script to obtain access token which will be stored in file called o365_token.txt in current directory

from O365 import Account

scopes =  ["IMAP.AccessAsUser.All", "POP.AccessAsUser.All", "SMTP.Send", "Mail.Send", "offline_access"]

account = Account(credentials=('client_id_of_azureapp', 'client_secret_of_azureapp'))
result = account.authenticate(scopes=scopes)  # request a token for this scopes

6. Use below script to send email by providing the authtoken file generated in previous step.

from O365 import Account
from O365.utils.token import FileSystemTokenBackend
tk = FileSystemTokenBackend(token_path=".", token_filename="o365_token.txt")

credentials = ('client_id', 'client_secret')

account = Account(credentials, auth_flow_type = 'public',token_backend=tk)
m = account.new_message()
m.to.add('user@company.com')
m.subject = 'Testing!'
m.body = "George Best quote: I've stopped drinking, but only while I'm asleep."
m.send()

Note: If you have admin consent or you are administrator or azure account you can skip the step 4,5,6 and use below code directly.

from O365 import Account
from O365.utils.token import FileSystemTokenBackend
tk = FileSystemTokenBackend(token_path=".", token_filename="o365_token.txt")

credentials = ('client_id', 'client_secret') # from step 2,3
account = Account(credentials, auth_flow_type = 'credentials', tenant_id="your_app_tenant_id") # tenant_id (required) available just below client_id in azure

if account.authenticate():
    print('Authenticated!')

mailbox = account.mailbox("user@company.com") # Your email (required) from which you want to send email (your app should have permission to this email)
m = mailbox.new_message()
m.to.add('touser@company.com')
m.subject = 'Testing!'
m.body = "George Best quote: I've stopped drinking, but only while I'm asleep."
m.send()

Answer 4

The code has slightly changed. The above code won't work. Please use the below code. Reference

from O365 import Account

credentials = ('client_id', 'client_secret')

account = Account(credentials)
m = account.new_message()
m.to.add('to_example@example.com')
m.subject = 'Testing!'
m.body = "George Best quote: I've stopped drinking, but only while I'm asleep."
m.send()

Answer 5

Most likely, the problem is not in your code, but in the Exchange Online configuration.

I bet 535 5.7.3 Authentication unsuccessful is thrown because authenticated SMTP (SMTP AUTH protocol) is disabled in your Exchange Online organization.

Here you can find my answer explaining how you can enable SMTP AUTH for the user you are sending emails from. You have to be an Office 365 org admin to do that, or you can ask your administrator for help.

After that mailserver.starttls() should work. Notice that you don't need to specify a certificate in that call.

Answer 6

The following is a more concise alternative to @Gal's answer that worked for me:

    msg = MIMEText(f'Pubblicati i risultati per la ricerca: `{search_result}`\n\nPer maggiori dettagli, visita: {url}')  # replace with your email message
    msg['Subject'] = f"Pubblicazione criteri di valutazione {search_result.split(' ')[2]}"
    msg['From'] = from_email
    msg['To'] = to_email
    with smtplib.SMTP('smtp.office365.com', 587) as smtp:
        smtp.starttls()
        smtp.login(from_email, password)
        smtp.send_message(msg)