Question

Exchange Server 2003 spam relay and virus questions

Asked by: jbobst

We have a single domain controller and single Exchange 2003 server.  Both servers are running Windows 2003, along with Symantec Enterprise Edition Anti-Virus, version 10.0.1.  I have installed Symantec Mail Security for Exchange on the exchange server and I typically get about 30 viruses a day that Symantec reports as deleted on the Exchange server.  Most of the viruses are file attachments and are the W32.Sober.X, W32.Mydoom.L, and the W32.Netsky.P viruses.   We have about 38 people in my company, and I am wondering if this many viruses a day is "normal".  About two weeks ago, we started hosting our own email on the Exchange server, where as before, our mail provider pre-scanned the email for spam and virus attachments.

I was also warned about hosting our own email, as there is a risk of the Exchange server becoming a spam relay server.  How much of a reality is this possibility?  And what should I do to ensure that spam relay does not become a problem?  Is the Symantec Exchange product enough?

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Asked On
2005-12-05 at 10:13:41ID21653665
Tags

server

,

2003

,

exchange

,

relay

Topic

Exchange Email Server

Participating Experts
2
Points
200
Comments
4

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Answers

 

by: ChadwhitePosted on 2005-12-05 at 11:12:00ID: 15421985

Well I use McAfees exchange product but they are a lot alike. I can't tell you how many times it has saved us from having outbreaks. I have set it to delete any identified viruses and quarantine .exe files. Depending on how many viruses are rampant at the time you can get hammered with a lot of those infected emails that the popular worms send out. Don't be surprised if you get a lot of them recently from that new sober variant.

Relaying occurs when you allow other people -not your users- to send mail through your SMTP server to other people -not your users

http://www.petri.co.il/preventing_exchange_2000_2003_from_relaying.htm.

 

by: jbobstPosted on 2005-12-05 at 12:08:01ID: 15422444

Chad,

Thank you for the information, and the article link.  I am slightly confused by the article...specifically in the "consequences" and "conclusions" sections.  It says that if you disable the "anonymous access", you can prevent relaying...however, then is says in the "consequences" section that if you do this, you will never be able to receive outside email again.  Then in the conclusions section, it says that if you leave everything in the default configuration, the server will "safely protect you from relaying un-authorized messages while still enabling outside users to send e-mail to your domain".  Did I read this incorrectly?  What was your understanding of this article in what it was telling you to do to prevent relaying?  Should I just leave everything in the default configuration?

Thanks.
Jeff

 

by: SembeePosted on 2005-12-05 at 12:37:40ID: 15422682

Exchange 200x is mostly relay secure out of the box.
There are two areas that it is vulnerable:
1. NDR Spam
2. Authenticated User Relaying.

NDR spam is where email is sent to your server with an invalid email address on purpose, to get your machine to bounce the message back to the "sender". However the sender is spoofed and is the real target.
This can be dealt with if your Exchange 2003 server is installed on Windows 2003 by making a couple of changes to the configuration of the server.
http://www.amset.info/exchange/filterunknown.asp

Authenticated User Relaying is where an account is compromised and then used to send email through your server. Exchange is set by default to allow authenticated users to relay. The administrator account is the usual target.
Again this can be controlled depending on your business requirements.
http://www.amset.info/exchange/smtp-relaysecure.asp

In both cases, if you are relaying email it will usually show pretty quickly. There will be a significant amount of email in the queues of the Exchange server - to odd email addresses. The spammers lists are not always that clean so you will see lots of email being rejected.

The only way to be 100% secure from the Internet is not to connect to the Internet, but you can minimise the risks by taking some precautions.

Simon.

 

by: ChadwhitePosted on 2005-12-05 at 13:07:51ID: 15422950

Well I think the basic premise of the ralying article was

---------
"Conclusions
Keeping the SMTP Virtual Server's default settings (the authentication and relay buttons) will safely protect you from relaying un-authorized messages while still enabling outside users to send e-mail to your domain."
---------


It basically was only meant to give you an idea of what relaying was ... sorry if I confused you ..
As Simon said most of the settings in Exch 2003 can safely remain untouched. Microsoft built the "anti-relay" design into the software. Changes really only need to be made when you're trying to relay- as in the case of a smart host or something.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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