Digitally signed messages sent as clear text signed are identified by a blue icon in Outlook 2003 (841455)

SYMPTOMS

If the following conditions are true when you send an e-mail message that you created or that you received in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, the e-mail message label icon is a Blue Lock icon instead of being a Red Ribbon icon:

The e-mail message is digitally signed.
The Send this message as clear text signed check box is selected

CAUSE

This is a new problem in Outlook 2003. In Microsoft Outlook 2002, digitally signed e-mail messages that are sent as encrypted e-mail messages or as clear text digitally signed e-mail messages are not differentiated with two different label icons. Both types of e-mail messages use the Red Ribbon icon.

However, in Outlook 2003, the label icons for digitally signed e-mail messages that are sent as encrypted e-mail messages or as clear text digitally signed e-mail messages have been differentiated with two different label icons. In Outlook 2003, the Blue Lock icon is used when the digitally signed e-mail message is encrypted before it is sent. The Red Ribbon icon is used when the digitally signed e-mail message is sent as clear text.

RESOLUTION

This problem was first fixed in a hotfix that is now contained in a service pack. If you installed the latest Office 2003 service pack, you do not have to install the hotfix.

Service pack information

This problem is corrected in Office 2003 Service Pack 2.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Office 2003. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

870924 How to obtain the latest service pack for Office 2003

After you install the service pack, follow the steps that are listed in the "More Information" section of the article to set the ConvertSMIMEBlobSignedIcons registry key and to activate the hotfix.

Hotfix information

How to obtain the hotfix

This issue is fixed in the Outlook 2003 post-Service Pack 1 Hotfix Package that was released on August 21, 2004. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

839629 Description of the Outlook 2003 post-Service Pack 1 hotfix package: August 21, 2004

MORE INFORMATION

You must modify a registry key to use the hotfix that this package contains. Follow these steps, and then quit Registry Editor:

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security\ConvertSMIMEBlobSignedIcons
On the Edit menu, click Modify.
Type 1, and then press ENTER.

Note The ConvertSMIMEBlobSignedIcons registry entry is a DWORD value. When you set ConvertSMIMEBlobSignedIcons to 1, the Enable Cryptography Icons option is turned on.