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youthworks

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BadMail and Queue, how to stop virus/attack?

Hello,
Our email is hosted on a Win2K server/Win2k Exchange Server.  About 5 days ago the store.exe and inetpub.exe began to use up so much memory that no one was allowed to receive email.  Our server's hard drive space then filled up.  I cleaned up some old data and rebooted the server but then it happened again.

I now see that in the Badmail folder there are so many emails that I can't open it.  Also, in the Queue new spam(?) emails keep appearing from the Navy Credit Union with no receipient (I imagine it gets moved to Badmail).  Is there a virus on this server (doesn't come back with one after being searched by Symantec)?  Is there someone inside the organization that has to have a virus that is causing this?  Can it be someone from the outside?  Our firewall currently allows all SMTP traffic (just got a new firewall a couple of months ago, I've been slow to add our old SMTP rules due to how strange it is with NAT).  Do I just need to update the firewall to accept from only our spam filtering company?

I'm guessing that will help.  Additional question to help me...is Queue showing emails that are coming into the domain or that are leaving?  It seems like coming into, but I just need some clarification.  Thanks.
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youthworks

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Update:
We are okay right now, but the issue is still there.
The Queue will receive an email(s) that seems to have an SMTP engine of some sorts.  Once that email is in there, other emails are created, maybe an average of 10/sec.  But I can delete a lot of them, and if I stop the SMTP service I can delete them all.  It's good for awhile but then it starts up again.

The memory issue isn't happening as bad, it's really not a big deal.  The big deal is now stopping these emails.

Thanks!
also, how do I delete/rename and delete what's in the Badmail folder?
You can delete the entire badmail folder using SHIFT-DEL. Exchange will recreate it when required.
Unfortunately Exchange 2000 doesn't have much spam protection built in, and I don't think the Symantec product will block the basic - email messages to unknown recipients. To do that you will need to use a third party product that can LDAP lookups. The one I usually suggest is Vamsoft ORF http://www.vamsoft.com/

Microsoft have a tool for dealing with Badmail as well, which you can download from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=782AAF0F-6239-40AD-ADDA-97863D852FF7&displaylang=en

Simon.
okay, so I figured out we were getting a "spam attack," from someone in our domain or not I'm not sure.

I changed our open relay settings from allow all authenticated users to just specific internal IPs and the spamming quit going to the Queue and started going straight to Badmail, which is now just receiving a ton of spam.  Is there a way to stop this from happening or to put a size limit on the Badmail folder?  Please remember we are using Win2k server with Exchang2K.

Thanks!
You have to use the link I have posted above to remove the messages from badmail. Remember badmail is just a copy of the NDRs, and goes down as one of those "nice ideas" Microsoft had with Exchange 2000 (Alongside the M drive). You will need to use a third party tool of some description to protect Exchange 2000, it has no protection of its own.

Simon.
great, thanks.

Any idea how to find what is spamming us?  any tools you can recommend?
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Sembee
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thanks for your help