yum fails with "ssl handshake failure" error

Issue

• While updating packages via yum it fails with following error

# yum update 
        Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security 
        Traceback (most recent call last): 
          File "/usr/bin/yum", line 29, in ? 
            yummain.user_main(sys.argv[1:], exit_code=True) 
          File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 309, in user_main 
            errcode = main(args) 
          File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 157, in main 
            base.getOptionsConfig(args) 
          File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 187, in getOptionsConfig 
            self.conf 
          File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 664, in <lambda> 
            conf = property(fget=lambda self: self._getConfig(), 
          File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 253, in _getConfig 
            self.plugins.run('init') 
          File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/plugins.py", line 179, in run 
            func(conduitcls(self, self.base, conf, **kwargs)) 
          File "/usr/lib/yum-plugins/rhnplugin.py", line 127, in init_hook 
            svrChannels = rhnChannel.getChannelDetails() 
          File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhnChannel.py", line 86, in getChannelDetails 
            sourceChannels = getChannels() 
          File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhnChannel.py", line 112, in getChannels 
            up2dateChannels = s.up2date.listChannels(up2dateAuth.getSystemId()) 
          File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhnserver.py", line 50, in __call__ 
            return rpcServer.doCall(method, *args, **kwargs) 
          File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rpcServer.py", line 199, in doCall 
            ret = method(*args, **kwargs) 
          File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/xmlrpclib.py", line 1096, in __call__ 
            return self.__send(self.__name, args) 
          File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rpcServer.py", line 38, in _request1 
            ret = self._request(methodname, params) 
          File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/rpclib.py", line 326, in _request 
            self._handler, request, verbose=self._verbose) 
          File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/transports.py", line 171, in request 
            headers, fd = req.send_http(host, handler) 
          File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/transports.py", line 700, in send_http 
            headers=self.headers) 
          File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/httplib.py", line 810, in request 
            self._send_request(method, url, body, headers) 
          File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/httplib.py", line 833, in _send_request 
            self.endheaders() 
          File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/httplib.py", line 804, in endheaders 
            self._send_output() 
          File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/httplib.py", line 685, in _send_output 
            self.send(msg) 
          File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/httplib.py", line 664, in send 
            self.sock.sendall(str) 
          File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rhn/SSL.py", line 215, in write 
            sent = self._connection.send(data) 
        OpenSSL.SSL.Error: [('SSL routines', 'SSL23_WRITE', 'ssl handshake failure')] 

• yum update running in a cronjob fails with following error.

Error Type: <class 'OpenSSL.SSL.Error'>
Error Value: [('SSL routines', 'SSL3_WRITE_BYTES', 'ssl handshake failure')]