This may be related to an update to packages on this Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid LTS system. The monitrc remains unchanged and it works on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise LTS systems.
Purging and reinstalling the monit package does not restore functionality.
I'm suddenly getting this error message every time monit attempts to send the message:
Jul 29 12:02:20 myhost monit[14058]: monit: Openssl engine error: error:1408F10B:SSL routines:func(143):reason(267)
Jul 29 12:02:20 myhost monit[14058]: Alert handler failed, retry scheduled for next cycle
Jul 29 12:03:20 myhost monit[14058]: monit: unable to read data from the file
Jul 29 12:03:20 myhost monit[14058]: skipping /var/lib/monit/1406235629_myhost - unknown data format
# uname -a
Linux myhost 2.6.32-28-server #55-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jan 10 23:57:16 UTC 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux
# monit -V
This is monit version 5.0.3
Copyright (C) 2000-2009 by Tildeslash Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
# ldd `which monit`
linux-vdso.so.1 => (0x00007fff5733a000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007fb3417f9000)
libpam.so.0 => /lib/libpam.so.0 (0x00007fb3415ec000)
libcrypt.so.1 => /lib/libcrypt.so.1 (0x00007fb3413b2000)
libresolv.so.2 => /lib/libresolv.so.2 (0x00007fb341199000)
libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x00007fb340f7f000)
libssl.so.0.9.8 => /lib/libssl.so.0.9.8 (0x00007fb340d2a000)
libcrypto.so.0.9.8 => /lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 (0x00007fb340999000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007fb340612000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fb341a1d000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007fb34040d000)
libz.so.1 => /lib/libz.so.1 (0x00007fb3401f6000)
--