Encrypted PayPal Subscription Button Error

So what actually did this big problem? paypal changed something in its code, an s2 update changed something? what?

And still no answer anywhere why in my s2, if i have encrypt on or off it generates the exact same button code, and it is unencrypted, as ive tried editing it myself and hacking the payment, so its not safe.

Im getting payments now through unencrypted code, the buttons for some reason are making my payment page take FOREVER to load (remove the buttons it loads right up) and the payments i do get most users dont recieve the follow on email to complete their signup

This plugin was perfect for a year!

I already got 2 hacked payments this week :-)
really need remedy soon….

(dunno what they did, but they managed to created an account and 1 respectively 2 days later I get a mail by paypal that the payment failed – never happened before… – ant this weren’t payments funded by wire check – on those I know that they fail from time to time)
or is a real hacked payment that someone changes the amount and only pays 0.01$ for an article?

Doooh, S2member really seems to become more and more a tool for North America, Ozzie and UK users only. Here in good old Europe without payments pro, it’s not very well integrated…

Hopefully I will move to Vancouver middle of next year…..

NOT HOLDING MY BREATH

BUT SOMETHINGS HAPPENED!

idk if S2 made a change or paypal, but my buttons are working again in the last 1 hour, i was able to turn the encryption back on in my paypal settings and buttons still work, I only noticed as I recieved my first s2member emails in a month letting me know of member signups (id stopped recieving these) so pray it stays! but it seems to have all gone back to how it was and working again! Also my join page isnt taking forever to load like it was during this month of issues.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by  Jake Kennedy.

Update from PayPal regarding this issue on: 9/19/2013.

PayPal Button Encryption [Incident: 130823-000193]
Response Via Email (Federica)

Dear Jason,

Thank you for contacting PayPal Merchant Technical Services.

We sincerely apologise for the delay in responding to your query.

We are aware of this issue and our engineers are actively working to resolve these issues. I don’t have a estimated time of arrival for when this issue will be resolved at this time. You will be updated further via this ticket as we receive more information from our engineers. I apologize for the impact this issue is causing. The issues you are experiencing are considered a high priority.

Thanks for your patience regarding this matter.

Federica
PayPal Merchant Technical Services
PayPal, an eBay Company

I will continue to update this thread & KB article as we receive further details from PayPal. I’m looking forward to this being resolved!

UPDATE: I have had no further response from PayPal on this since the last acknowledgement that this WAS their problem and not ours. No response since then; but the issue seems to have been corrected from my most recent tests; e.g. these PayPal Buttons (encrypted) are now working as expected: http://gator3104.hostgator.com/~wsksdev/jason/pp-be-test.php

I just tried to enable encryption, it didn’t work. Still have do disable encryption.

I am still getting the same error on my site. (Sorry – your last action could not be completed)

This is really getting to be too much at this point. It’ll be a huge pain but we need to move to another system. No new clients since this problem started out of nowhere months ago.

Response from PayPal 10/02/2013

Dear Jason Caldwell,

The problem is still ongoing and our developers are working in order to release a fix as soon as possible. The issues you are experiencing are considered a high priority.

As previously mentioned, you may want to use a button without encryption as a workaround for now.

Thanks for your patience regarding this matter.

Federica
PayPal Merchant Technical Services
PayPal, an eBay Company

What I still don’t get is why is this problem unique to S2Member? Is there something about the implementation that has caused this? Maybe it uses some PPal functions that are being deprecated?

Patience is the word for a problem that lasts a week, maybe a month, this has been months and every day people try and sign up for my site I lose business.

Turning off security seems like a very very bad idea these days and I don’t want to really do that.

We’re building a serious business and can’t rely on systems that can not provide the most basic core function (process the transactions) for months…

Am I crazy here? It’s not like this is a bug in reporting or something. Basically this makes my site not work…

What I still don’t get is why is this problem unique to S2Member? Is there something about the implementation that has caused this? Maybe it uses some PPal functions that are being deprecated?

This problem is not unique to s2Member; it is a problem with encrypted buttons on the PayPal side of things. We have made attempts to bypass the issue across multiple API versions without success.

Turning off security seems like a very very bad idea these days and I don’t want to really do that.

Some alternatives to this may include:

Use s2Member Pro Forms w/ PayPal Pro instead of Buttons.
http://www.s2member.com/kb/pro-forms/

Or, use a PayPal-generated button that is a “hosted button”; which you can select when you generate a PayPal Button at PayPal.com. These do not need to be encrypted. See also: http://www.s2member.com/kb/using-paypal-created-buttons/

Or, use an unencrypted button and just monitor incoming sales for any fraudulent activity (e.g. incorrect prices, etc). Unencrypted buttons expose their source code, so savvy users who wish to commit fraud may be allowed to do so; if your buttons are unencrypted. This is a risk, but it’s one that can be monitored for fraudulent activity and any fraudulent transactions can be identified; e.g. you should probably terminate their account access if you find that a transaction was indeed fraudulent.

I will continue to update this thread as I receive updates from PayPal on this matter.

Thanks for the pro info. I bought the pro (just to support your work), but I always thought I need https and database to store the payment info on my own server so I never used the pro form. From the link, I see I can use the form the same as I use the PayPal button, no additional code is needed. Just replace the short code using PayPal button with the pro form short code, it should be all set, right?

Jason said:
Or, use a PayPal-generated button that is a “hosted button”

Just keep in mind guys, that these will only work for new signups, not upgrades of existing users.

Y said:
I bought the pro (just to support your work)

Thank you! :)

I always thought I need https and database to store the payment info on my own server so I never used the pro form.

No, that’s not the case. We’ve purposely avoided storing the payment info, to let the payment gateway deal with the implications that it carries, making it easier for you guys.

The pro-form doesn’t even require PayPal Pro, it can work with just PayPal Express Checkout. In the shortcode change the accept to just “paypal”: [hilite mono]accept="paypal"[/hilite].

If you allow the PayPal account to be optional in your PayPal settings, and you’re selling Buy Now, the user can pay with his card on PayPal when checking out. If you’re selling a subscription, he’ll be required to login to PayPal. Just as with PayPal Standard buttons.

@Jason, could you confirm that his existing user subscriptions will keep working fine when he starts using Express Checkout? I imagine it’s fine because the PayPal Standard account remains the same, which is not the case when upgrading to PayPal Pro if I remember correctly. Just making sure.

Thanks. I’ll consider upgrading to PayPal pro. Currently I’m using PayPal standard + ERP. To upgrade to PayPal pro, the ERP has to be cancelled. So the question would be: Will the existing ERP profile being cancelled when I cancel the ERP? This is really a critical question. I searched online and found the answer here: http://www.primothemes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2634#p53563

Looks like the existing profile won’t be cancelled.

Just to paste here for the record.

Ah, I didn’t mean changing to PayPal Pro, just Express Checkout (which is free). But yeah, that post is the answer to the ERP question. :)

Thanks. I know you meant Express. I just figured PayPal pro is better.

@Jason, could you confirm that his existing user subscriptions will keep working fine when he starts using Express Checkout? I imagine it’s fine because the PayPal Standard account remains the same, which is not the case when upgrading to PayPal Pro if I remember correctly. Just making sure.

Yes, that is correct. The only time this would be a problem is if the underlying PayPal account changes all together (which is very rare). As long the underlying PayPal account is the same (usually the case); any past Subscriptions created through Standard Buttons will continue to operate as expected even after a site owner begins to use Pro Forms instead of Buttons for new customers.

PayPal confirms this issue is now resolved.

Response from PayPal – 10/14/2013 06:48 AM

We appreciate your patience. This message is to inform you that the issue was resolved through a recent live site update.

Please contact us again if you feel the issue is not resolved and provide additional supporting details to help us identify or reproduce the issue.

PayPal Merchant Technical Services