Microsoft Exchange 2013 shows blank ECP & OWA after changes to SSL certificates

This issue is described in KB2971270 and is fixed in CU6.

I ran a couple of times in this error. After applying changes to SSL certificates (add, replace or delete a SSL certificate) and rebooting the server, the event log is flooded with events from source “HttpEvent” and event id 15021. The message says:

An error occurred while using SSL configuration for endpoint 0.0.0.0:444. The error status code is contained within the returned data.

If you try to access the Exchange Control Panel (ECP) or Outlook Web Access (OWA), you will get a blank website. To solve this issue, open up an elevated command prompt on your Exchange 2013 server.

C:\windows\system32>netsh http show sslcert

SSL Certificate bindings:
-------------------------

    IP:port                      : 0.0.0.0:443
    Certificate Hash             : 1ec7413b4fb1782b4b40868d967161d29154fd7f
    Application ID               : {4dc3e181-e14b-4a21-b022-59fc669b0914}
    Certificate Store Name       : MY
    Verify Client Certificate Revocation : Enabled
    Verify Revocation Using Cached Client Certificate Only : Disabled
    Usage Check                  : Enabled
    Revocation Freshness Time    : 0
    URL Retrieval Timeout        : 0
    Ctl Identifier               : (null)
    Ctl Store Name               : (null)
    DS Mapper Usage              : Disabled
    Negotiate Client Certificate : Disabled

    IP:port                      : 0.0.0.0:444
    Certificate Hash             : a80c9de605a1525cd252c250495b459f06ed2ec1
    Application ID               : {4dc3e181-e14b-4a21-b022-59fc669b0914}
    Certificate Store Name       : MY
    Verify Client Certificate Revocation : Enabled
    Verify Revocation Using Cached Client Certificate Only : Disabled
    Usage Check                  : Enabled
    Revocation Freshness Time    : 0
    URL Retrieval Timeout        : 0
    Ctl Identifier               : (null)
    Ctl Store Name               : (null)
    DS Mapper Usage              : Disabled
    Negotiate Client Certificate : Disabled

    IP:port                      : 0.0.0.0:8172
    Certificate Hash             : 09093ca95154929df92f1bee395b2670a1036a06
    Application ID               : {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
    Certificate Store Name       : MY
    Verify Client Certificate Revocation : Enabled
    Verify Revocation Using Cached Client Certificate Only : Disabled
    Usage Check                  : Enabled
    Revocation Freshness Time    : 0
    URL Retrieval Timeout        : 0
    Ctl Identifier               : (null)
    Ctl Store Name               : (null)
    DS Mapper Usage              : Disabled
    Negotiate Client Certificate : Disabled

    IP:port                      : 127.0.0.1:443
    Certificate Hash             : 1ec7413b4fb1782b4b40868d967161d29154fd7f
    Application ID               : {4dc3e181-e14b-4a21-b022-59fc669b0914}
    Certificate Store Name       : MY
    Verify Client Certificate Revocation : Enabled
    Verify Revocation Using Cached Client Certificate Only : Disabled
    Usage Check                  : Enabled
    Revocation Freshness Time    : 0
    URL Retrieval Timeout        : 0
    Ctl Identifier               : (null)
    Ctl Store Name               : (null)
    DS Mapper Usage              : Disabled
    Negotiate Client Certificate : Disabled

Check the certificate hash and appliaction ID for 0.0.0.0:443, 0.0.0.0:444 and 127.0.0.1:443. You will notice, that the application ID for this three entries is the same, but the certificate hash for 0.0.0.0:444 differs from the other two entries. And that’s the point. Remove the certificate for 0.0.0.0:444.

C:\windows\system32>netsh http delete sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:444

SSL Certificate successfully deleted

Now add it again with the correct certificate hash and application ID.

C:\windows\system32>netsh http add sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:444 certhash=1ec7413b4fb1782b4b40868d967161d29154fd7f appid="{4dc3e181-e14b-4a21-b022-59fc669b0914}"

SSL Certificate successfully added

That’s it. Reboot the Exchange 2013 server and everything should be up and running again.