We have been running Exchange 2003 for several years with over 100 users. Our public folders have been secured so they are only viewable by certain users. Most use Outlook 2003. Recently, we activated IMAP through the firewall to allow a a few iPhone users. Suddenly, all of our "hidden" public folders immediately pulled down into the iPhone. These same users cannot see the public folders when connecting via Outlook Web Access. How do we secure the folders under IMAP?
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I'm not sure if this will help, but when you add the account to the iphone make sure you add it as an "exchange" account instead of an "imap" account. The only difference I can find so far is that the "exchange" account is, of course, still imap but it hides things that you wouldn't want on your phone, like unreadable meeting notices, etc.
I am assuming you have a front end, back end Exchange server setup. This will offer up the entire public folders to IMAP. This is normal for this Exchange Server 2003 configuration, it is a known vulnerability. You get all or none with public folders over IMAP, and IMAP cannot read the permissions.
To disable Public Folders through IMAP, use the following steps. Note that this does NOT affect Public Folders in Outlook or Web Access, but you will not be able to get ANY public folders on the IMAP clients.
Open Exchange System Manager
Expand the Administrative Groups node
Expand the First Administrative Group node
Expand the Servers node
Expand the node for the Exchange server that will be configured
Expand the Protocols node
Expand the IMAP4 node
Right click on the Default IMAP4 Virtual Server and select Properties
Select the General tab
Uncheck Include all public folders when a folder list is requested
Click Apply and then OK
Hope this helps.
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by: carl_legerePosted on 2007-10-28 at 16:06:46ID: 20166644
Unfortunately Microsoft's IMAP server is missing alot of functionality you would find in a more modern linux/unix imap server, including advanced access control lists.
You hit it on the head when you said the iPhone simply ignores the concept of hidden folders.
To the best of my knowledge, the security placed on public folders in exchange server, is limited to outlook client and OWA.