Paypal IPN Certificate error

[maxread]

Joomla 3.7.4 VM 3.2.2 PHP 3.6.31

Hi folks. Since August 9th my Paypal IPN has stopped working (it's been working for 5 years). Here's the error log:

Error log:

[09-Aug-2017 13:03:43 UTC] PHP Warning:  fsockopen(): SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages:
error:14090086:SSL routines:ssl3_get_server_certificate:certificate verify failed in /home/theenidc/public_html/plugins/vmpayment/paypal/paypal/helpers/paypal.php on line 751
[09-Aug-2017 13:03:43 UTC] PHP Warning:  fsockopen(): Failed to enable crypto in /home/theenidc/public_html/plugins/vmpayment/paypal/paypal/helpers/paypal.php on line 751
[09-Aug-2017 13:03:43 UTC] PHP Warning:  fsockopen(): unable to connect to ssl://www.paypal.com:443 (Unknown error) in /home/theenidc/public_html/plugins/vmpayment/paypal/paypal/helpers/paypal.php on line 751

VM Paypal log:

2017-08-12 10:58:56 DEBUG checkPaypalIps REMOTE ADDRESS: 173.0.81.1
2017-08-12 10:58:56 ERROR validateIpnContent: Error while posting IPN:  ,  0
2017-08-12 10:58:56 DEBUG validateIpnContent: valid_ipn:
2017-08-13 12:19:49 DEBUG plgVmConfirmedOrder: order number: 4N4101450
2017-08-13 12:19:49 MESSAGE plgVmConfirmedOrder: Amount/Currency stored 14.19 paymentcurrency 52 orderusercurrency52
2017-08-13 12:20:19 DEBUG PaymentNotification, paypal_data:: Array

It seems that it's also affecting other components that use IPN. According to my hosting, other users are also being affected, not just me. It would seem that Paypal started to introduce changes in June and that these may now be causing the problem. My host supports SSL, HTTP 1.1, TLS 1.2 and SHA-256 so complies with all Paypal's security requirements.

I'm really struggling to work out what's going on here. Could my Paypal payment plugin somehow be out of date?

[philraymond]

Yes, mine stopped working Aug 9th as well. Don't want to hijack this thread - just want to show this isn't an isolated incident (and I'm only on J2.5.27, VM2.6.12.2, PHP5.6.31).

VM PayPal Log:

2017-08-09 20:15:22 ERROR validateIpnContent: Error while posting IPN:  ,  0
2017-08-10 00:50:42 ERROR validateIpnContent: Error while posting IPN:  ,  0
2017-08-10 18:43:46 ERROR validateIpnContent: Error while posting IPN:  ,  0
2017-08-11 15:38:13 ERROR validateIpnContent: Error while posting IPN:  ,  0
2017-08-11 21:36:08 ERROR validateIpnContent: Error while posting IPN:  ,  0
2017-08-11 21:37:38 ERROR validateIpnContent: Error while posting IPN:  ,  0
2017-08-12 13:19:02 ERROR validateIpnContent: Error while posting IPN:  ,  0
2017-08-13 19:20:50 ERROR validateIpnContent: Error while posting IPN:  ,  0
2017-08-15 22:59:59 ERROR validateIpnContent: Error while posting IPN:  ,  0