Category Archives: Exchange 2010

Security Update Exchange 2010-2019 (Mar2021)

Posted on by
45

Update 16Mar2021: Added One-Click tool reference.

Another month, another set of security updates for Exchange Server 2016 and 2019, including out-of-band updates for Exchange 2013 CU23 and Exchange 2010 SP3 (Rollup 32). Given the risk of this vulnerability, security updates for older out-of-support CUs (Ex2016 CU8 was released December 2017) were also made available. According to the related Exchange team blog, these exploits are seen being used as part of an attack chain. After publication of this vulnerability named Hafnium, proof of concept kits were published after which variations started to appear (e.g. DearCry). Needless to say, the security update is critical and deployment should not be postponed – intermediate mitigations (with consequences) are also available.

These fixes address the following Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities:

The exploit can be fixed by security update, or in case of Exchange 2010 SP3 by applying a Rollup, which you can find in the table below per current Exchange version. Microsoft published security updates for older CUs as well on March 8th; these have been added to the table below.

Exchange BuildDownloadBuildArticleSupersedes
Exchange 2019 CU8Download15.2.792.10KB5000871KB4602269
Exchange 2019 CU7Download15.2.721.13KB5000871KB4602269
Exchange 2016 CU19Download15.1.2176.9KB5000871KB4602269
Exchange 2016 CU18Download15.1.2106.13KB5000871KB4602269
Exchange 2013 CU23Download15.0.1497.12KB5000871KB4593466
Exchange 2010 SP3 RU32Download14.3.513.0KB5000978
Exchange 2019 CU6Download15.2.659.12KB5000871
Exchange 2019 CU5Download15.2.595.8KB5000871
Exchange 2019 CU4Download15.2.529.13KB5000871
Exchange 2019 CU3Download15.2.464.15KB5000871
Exchange 2019 CU2Download15.2.397.11KB5000871
Exchange 2019 CU1Download15.2.330.11KB5000871
Exchange 2019 RTMDownload15.2.221.18KB5000871
Exchange 2016 CU17Download15.1.2044.13KB5000871
Exchange 2016 CU16Download15.1.1979.8KB5000871
Exchange 2016 CU15Download15.1.1913.12KB5000871
Exchange 2016 CU14Download15.1.1847.12KB5000871
Exchange 2016 CU13Download15.1.1779.8KB5000871
Exchange 2016 CU12Download15.1.1713.10KB5000871
Exchange 2016 CU11Download15.1.1591.18KB5000871
Exchange 2016 CU10Download15.1.1531.12KB5000871
Exchange 2016 CU9Download15.1.1466.16KB5000871
Exchange 2016 CU8Download15.1.1415.10KB5000871
Exchange 2013 CU22Download15.0.1473.6KB5000871
Exchange 2013 CU21Download15.0.1395.12KB5000871

Notes:

  • You may not be prompted for a reboot, but one is required.
  • When manually installing the update use an elevated command prompt, don’t just double-click the .msp. To apply an .msp from an elevated prompt, e.g. msiexec.exe /p <Full Path to File>.
  • When you need to update to a more current Cumulative Update first, update using an elevated command prompt, e.g. setup.exe /m:upgrade /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms
  • Per product group feedback, Exchange 2010 is not vulnerable to the same attack chain as Exchange 2013/2016/2019, hence the Rollup mentioning a single CVE.
  • When running product levels earlier than the ones patched, i.e. Exchange 2016 CU17, you are at risk. There are no patches for earlier product levels, so you need to update to a recent CU after which you can install the security update.
  • When installing a recent CU first in order to be able to install the security update, reboot after installing the CU, then install the security update. This prevents issues caused by files being locked or updating files pending replacement during reboot.
  • When you are significantly behind regarding keeping your Exchange servers up to date, the blog Upgrade Paths for CU’s and .NET might help in determining an update strategy.
  • The statement to stay up to date with at most CU n-1 is not some random adage; apart from features and fixes, it also allows you to quickly respond to these type of emergencies.
  • Make sure you have configured proper Anti-Virus/Malware exclusions for Exchange server, as documented here for Exchange 2016/2019. I’ve seen significant delays or even hangs during setup of Cumulative Updates because of paths and processes not being excluded. When running Exchange virtually, any I/O inspection running on top of your hypervisor is also considered anti-virus/malware software, such as Trend Micro Deep Inspection on VMWare.
  • When deploying CU(n) on top of CU(n-1) when an interim update already has been installed, it is recommended to uninstall the IU prior to deploying CU(n). While it might go through, an abort is likely with mention of detecting an IU (INTERIMUPDATEDETECTED) in Exchange Setup log.
  • Security Updates are Cumulative Update level specific. You cannot apply the update for Exchange 2016 CU18 to Exchange 2016 CU19. Note that the security update file has the same name for different Cumulative Updates; I would suggest tagging the file name with the CU level, e.g. Exchange2016-CU18-KB5000871-x64-en.msp.
  • The publication of security updates for some older CUs does not remove the necessity to update and patch with current CUs.

Indicators & Action
You may want to look for signs that your Exchange server might have been compromised (Indicators of Compromise or IOC). The article HAFNIUM targeting Exchange Servers with 0-day exploits explains this process. A tool is available to assist in scanning systems for indicators, the Microsoft Support Emergency Response Tool (MSERT).

There is also official communication to support this update, including steps to remediate issues with updates and steps to perform analysis (many people overlook the recommendation to run the update elevated for some reason). This deck can be found here: March 2021 Exchange Server Security Update – v1.2.65 – EN.pdf (thanks Chris Lehr).

Mitigations
I would also recommend the official follow-up post, which not only has been updated since the original post, but also includes mitigations for organizations which cannot deploy the update yet:

  • A script to configure IIS rewrite rules to block cookies used in the attack (mitigates CVE-2021-26855).
  • Disabling UM Services (mitigates CVE-2021-26857).
  • Disabling ECP application pool (mitigates CVE-2021-27065).
  • Disabling OAB application pool (addresses CVE-2021-26858).

Needless to say, steps like disabling ECP or OAB impacts client functionality.

MS published a One-Click Microsoft Exchange On-Premises Mitigation Tool for simplified one-click implementation of mitigation measures on Exchange 2013-2019.

Finally
Since some people are discovering artifacts of HAFNIUM dating before Microsoft’s official communication, people have been wondering how long this has been going on. For those interested, Krebson Security has published an article with a concise timeline of the events related to this attack.

Security Updates Exchange 2010-2019 (Dec2020)

Posted on by
Reply

A quick blog on security updates for Exchange Server 2013, 2016 and 2019 released December 8th. These fixes address the following vulnerability:

Exchange 2016 / 2019

  • CVE-2020-17117: Microsoft Exchange Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
  • CVE-2020-17132: Microsoft Exchange Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
  • CVE-2020-17141: Microsoft Exchange Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
  • CVE-2020-17142: Microsoft Exchange Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
  • CVE-2020-17143: Microsoft Exchange Information Disclosure Vulnerability

Exchange 2013

  • CVE-2020-17117: Microsoft Exchange Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
  • CVE-2020-17132: Microsoft Exchange Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
  • CVE-2020-17142: Microsoft Exchange Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
  • CVE-2020-17143: Microsoft Exchange Information Disclosure Vulnerability

Exchange 2010

  • CVE-2020-17144: Microsoft Exchange Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

The exploits can be fixed by single security update, which you can find in the table below per current Exchange version.

ExchangeDownloadBuildKBSupersedes
Exchange 2019 CU7Download15.2.721.6KB4593465KB4588741
Exchange 2019 CU6Download15.2.659.11KB4593465KB4588741
Exchange 2016 CU18Download15.1.2106.6KB4593465KB4588741
Exchange 2016 CU17Download15.1.2044.12KB4593465KB4588741
Exchange 2013 CU23Download15.0.1497.10KB4593466
Exchange 2010 SP3 RU31 Download14.3.509.0KB4593467

Be advised that these security updates are Cumulative Update level specific. You cannot apply the update for Exchange 2016 CU17 to Exchange 2016 CU16. Also, the security update download has the same name for different Cumulative Updates, and I would suggest tagging the file name with the CU level, e.g. Exchange2019-CU6-KB4588741-x64-en.msp.

Also, run the Security Update from an elevated command prompt, to prevent issues during installation. And on a final note, as with any patch or update, I’d recommend to apply this in a acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.

MS Teams & pre-Exchange 2016CU3

Posted on by
5

Updated May 9th: Added Share to Teams. to table

With the emergency to facilitate working from home due to the Corona pandemic, many organizations were faced with a dilemma. When running Exchange 2013 or some even Exchange 2010 on-premises, and a desire to start using Microsoft Teams, organizations were confronted with the following requirements for integrating Microsoft Teams with Exchange on-premises (source):

  • Users with mailboxes hosted on-premises must be synchronized to Azure Active Directory.
  • Running Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 3 or later on-premises.
  • OAuth needs to be configured (via Hybrid Configuration Wizard, or manual as MVP fellow Jaap blogged about here).
  • Recently, an additional requirement was added to explain that for delegates to schedule calendar meetings on behalf of another person, some additional steps are required (steps 2-3 mentioned here).

Now as you might know, Exchange 2010 does not support OAuth authentication. But, by putting Exchange 2016 in front of Exchange 2010, Exchange 2016 can be used for dealing with OAuth authentication, as well as dealing with client traffic as it can down-level proxy to Exchange 2010 for mailboxes hosted on those servers. Looking at these requirements, organizations might conclude that putting Exchange 2016 CU3 in front of their Exchange environment, and configuring OAuth would suffice the requirement to integrate Teams with their Exchange on-premises environment.

image

Alas, the additional requirement for full Teams integration is that the mailbox server hosting the mailbox should support REST API. Teams leverages Graph REST API calls to interact with mailboxes. In an Hybrid Exchange setup, on-premises mailboxes are identified, and related REST API calls will be directed at the on-premises REST endpoint, landing on your Exchange environment. The requirement for REST API support is something which is not explicitly stated in the Teams integration article, despite my earlier pull request.

It is however stated implicitly in an article on REST support in Hybrid Exchange or the original publication on REST API support in Exchange 2016 CU3 by the Exchange PG, two articles which you might easily have missed or forgotten about. Either way, it states that “All on-premises mailboxes that will use the REST APIs must be located on databases located on Exchange 2016 CU3 servers”.

Thus, with REST API support only being available per Exchange 2016 CU3, Teams will not fully integrate with mailboxes hosted on earlier versions of Exchange. Exchange 2016 can be used to offload OAuth when your mailbox is still on Exchange 2010 (which works fine for Exchange Web Services for Free/Busy, for example), but Exchange 2010 does not support REST API, and thus will never understand those ‘weird’ (proxied) requests landing on /api virtual directory, typical of REST API calls. Consequently, you will see AutodiscoverV2 and REST API calls greeted with a 404:

2020-04-29 20:22:52 fd86:b628:2775:1:9502:cdcc:d4b1:5950 GET /autodiscover/autodiscover.json Email=chefke%40contoso.com&Protocol=REST&RedirectCount=1 443 CONTOSO\EX2$ fd86:b628:2775:1:9f8:2d9:c8a1:3c4a SkypeSpaces/1.0a$*+ 404 0 2 31

Typically, first thing users usually will notice missing is the Calendar integration:

image

Knowing this, the assumption could be that this combination doesn’t work at all, but as often the truth lies somewhere in the middle. You can use Teams when mailboxes are still hosted on pre-Exchange 2016 CU3, if you can live with the limitations. Below I have included a short overview of these, or other noteworthy items. The information is complementary to the How Exchange and Teams interact article. I hope it may help in discussions on what works and what doesn’t.

Disclaimer: Validated with mailbox hosted on Exchange 2010 with Exchange 2016 in front, OAuth and SkypeOnline AppId configured, and using Outlook 2016 C2R. Information may be subject to change. The list may not be conclusive; if you have any additional observations, please leave them in the comments.

ActionsWorksComment
Create & View Meetings in TeamsNoNo Calendar integration as this requires Outlook Calendar REST API. Visual clue is absence of the Calendar button.
Modify User Photo in Teams (client)NoDoesn’t work when mailbox is hosted in Exchange on-premises.
Call HistoryYesHistory propagates to mailboxes hosted in Exchange on-premises in ‘Teams Calls’ folder.
Access Outlook ContactsNoWorks only with Exchange Online mailboxes.
VoicemailYesMay use & receive voice-mail, but can’t play from Teams.
Free/Busy statusYesUses EWS.
Create & View/Update Teams Meetings from OutlookYesUsing default Teams Meeting add-in.
Create Teams Meetings from Outlook as DelegateNoTeams Scheduler uses AutodiscoverV2 to discover delegate EWS endpoint, and fails. Outlook will display “Sorry, but we can’t connect to the server right now. Please try again later.”
View/Update Teams Meetings from Outlook as DelegateYesEWS is used to fetch and update the calendar item.
MailTips in TeamsNoMailTips like Out of Office are not shown in Teams. MailTips work for Exchange 2016 CU3+.
Create & View Channel Meetings in TeamsNoDoesn’t work when mailbox is hosted in Exchange on-premises.
Share to TeamsNoDoesn’t work when mailbox is hosted in Exchange on-premises.

Of course, the better experience is to be had when your mailbox is hosted on Exchange 2016 CU3 or later (including Exchange 2019), or best when you simply host them in Exchange Online. However, given the circumstances and pressure from the organization to use Teams, that route might not be an option for everyone. Organizations may look at substantial investments in time and resources. In those cases, it might be good to know of alternative less preferable scenarios, and more important, any possible limitations you might encounter when taking a shortcut.

Exchange Hybrid Agent GA

Posted on by
Reply

Ex2013 LogoIn February, Microsoft released the initial public preview version of the Hybrid Agent. The purpose of the Hybrid Agent, also branded as the “Exchange Modern Hybrid Topology”, is to simplify the process of setting up and deploying Microsoft Exchange Hybrid for Exchange 2010 and later deployments, where full “classic” Exchange Hybrid is not an option.

It can also address scenarios where deploying the Hybrid Agent would satisfy organizational migration requirements. For example, moving mailboxes between Exchange Online and Exchange on-premises while providing rich-coexistence features, but without requiring (re)configuration of the publishing of Exchange services. Other functionality the Hybrid Agent doesn’t offer is mail transport. Future builds of the Hybrid Agent might introduce cross-premises functionality, such as Send As delegations as demonstrated at Microsoft Ignite last year.

This week, the Hybrid Agent Public reached General Availability status. In the following article for ENow, I discuss the major changes in the agent since the initial Preview release.

Read the full article on the ENow Software blog.

ADV190018: Security Updates Exchange 2013-2019 & 2010

Posted on by
9

Ex2013 LogoUpdated Jun13: Corrected Ex2010SP3RU28 link

A quick note that an update was released for current Exchange versions as well as Exchange 2010 related to the following advisory:

  • ADV190018 Microsoft Exchange Server Defense in Depth Update

Unfortunately – or perhaps understandably – the advisory doesn’t present any more details than, ‘”Microsoft has released an update for Microsoft Exchange Server that provides enhanced security as a defense in depth measure.”.

You can download the security updates here:

Be advised that the Security Updates for Exchange 2013-2019 are Cumulative Update level specific. Unfortunately, the security update carries the same name for different CU’s, and you cannot apply the update for Exchange 2016 CU12 to Exchange 2016 CU11. I would suggest tagging the Cumulative Update in the file name when you store it, e.g. Exchange2016-KB4503027-x64-en_CU11.msp.

As with any patch or update, I’d recommend to apply this in a acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.

Security Updates for Spoofing Vulnerability

Posted on by
2

Ex2013 LogoUpdated April 12th: Notice on KB4487563

Today, as part of patch Tuesday, supported Exchange versions received security updates to remediate the following issues:

Security updates are available for the following product levels, and fix the vulnerability mentioned:

Build KB Download CVE-2019-0817 CVE-2019-0858
Exchange 2019 CU1 15.2.330.7 KB4487563 Download Yes Yes
Exchange 2019 15.2.221.16 KB4487563 Download Yes Yes
Exchange 2016 CU12 15.1.1713.6 KB4487563 Download Yes Yes
Exchange 2016 CU11 15.1.1591.16 KB487563 Download Yes Yes
Exchange 2013 CU22 15.0.1473.4 KB487563 Download Yes Yes
Exchange 2010 SP3 RU27 14.3.452.0 KB4491413 Download Yes No

Notes:

  • CVS-2019-0858 does not apply to Exchange 2010.
  • Exchange 2010 is currently in Extended Support. Extended support for Exchange 2010 ends January 14, 2020.
  • Don’t forget to put the Exchange server in maintenance mode prior to updating.
  • If you want to speed up the update process for systems without internet access, you can follow the procedure described here to disable publisher’s certificate revocation checking.
  • The order of installation shouldn’t matter with the “every server is an island” concept, yet recommended is to upgrade internet-facing first, followed by non-internet-facing servers, and finally Edge Transports.

Notice on KB4487563:
Apart from the known issues mentioned in KB4487563, there are reports the fix terminates while stopping services, and the following error is being logged:
[Error] System.Management.Automation.CommandNotFoundException: The term ‘Stop-SetupService’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

This Stop-SetupService isn’t a regular cmdlet, and I assume is an alias created by the update. However, there are reports this operation fails. In those circumstances, next to retrying installation of the update, a workaround might be opening up a PowerShell session and adding the alias yourself using New-Alias Stop-SetupService Stop-Service, followed by running the update. The alias isn’t persistent, so will be gone after you close your session.

Caution:
As for any update, I recommend to thoroughly test updates in a test environment prior to implementing them in production. When you lack such facilities, hold out a few days and monitor the comments on the original publication or forums for any issues.

Exchange Updates – February 2019

Posted on by
10

Update: Added note that Exchange 2010 SP3 RU26 adds support for Windows Server 2012 R2.

Today, the Exchange Team released the overdue quarterly Cumulative Updates for Exchange Server 2013, Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2019, as well as a Rollup for Exchange Server 2010.

The KB articles that describe the fixes in each release and product downloads are available as follows:

Version Build KB Download UMLP Schema
Exchange 2019 CU1 15.2.330.5 KB4471391 VLSC N
Exchange 2016 CU12 15.1.1713.5 KB4471392 Download UMLP N
Exchange 2013 CU22 15.0.1473.3 KB4345836 Download UMLP N
Exchange 2010 SP3 RU26 14.3.442.0 KB4487052 Download N

This update contain the following important changes and notes:

  • Due to issue CVE-2018-8581, the EWS architecture was changed, in particular push notifications. Details on the change are described in KB4490060; while the change has been tested against EWS clients such as Outlook for Mac and Skype for Business, organizations may need to test any applications leveraging EWS to estimate potential impact of installing these Cumulative Updates or Rollup. In addition, organizations are advised to password reset Exchange computer accounts.
  • These Exchange builds introduces a change in the shared permissions model (this does not apply to Split Permissions Model). Result is that Exchange no longer requires fargoing permissions in Active Directory (e.g. WriteDACL on root of domain). To makes these changes become effective:
    • For Exchange 2013-2019 Cumulative Updates, run setup using /PrepareAD. In multi-forest environments, this needs to be done in every domain of the forest.
    • For Exchange 2010, go through the instructions mentioned in KB4490059.
  • Organizations considering moving to the Split Permissions because of CVE-2018-8581 should know Microsoft fully supports both models. Switching can have serious consequences and therefor should be fully evaluated.
  • This build of Exchange 2019 introduces cmdlets to block usage of legacy authentication protocols for users through policies, e.g. Basic Authentication.
  • Prior to deploying Exchange 2016 CU12 or Exchange 2013 CU22 on Edge Transport servers, install Visual C++ 2012 Runtime.
  • These Cumulative Updates will remove the DisableLoopbackCheck key when present; removing this key was a mitigation for CVE-2018-8581.
  • Exchange 2010 SP3 RU26 adds support for Windows Server 2012 R2, to accommodate for the Hybrid Agent.

Exchange 2019 CU1 fixes:

  • 4487596 Emails are blocked in moderator mailbox Outbox folder when you send large volumes of emails in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4487591 The recipient scope setting doesn’t work for sibling domains when including OUs in the scope in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4487602 Outlook for Mac users can still expand a distribution group when hideDLMembership is set to true in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488076 Outlook on the Web can’t be loaded when users use an invalid Windows language in operating system in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488079 Exchange Server 2016 allows adding Exchange Server 2019 mailbox server into a same DAG and vice versa
  • 4488263 X-MS-Exchange-Organization-BCC header isn’t encoded correctly in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488080 New-MigrationBatch doesn’t honor RBAC management scope in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488262 Delivery Reports exception when tracking a meeting request that’s sent with a room resource in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488268 Disable the irrelevant Query logs that’re created in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488267 Test-OAuthConnectivity always fails when Exchange Server uses proxy to connect to Internet in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488266 Client application doesn’t honor EwsAllowList in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488265 “There are problems with the signature” error occurs for digital signature message if attachment filtering is enabled in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488398 “The Microsoft Exchange Replication service may not be running on server” error when you add a mailbox database copy in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488264 Mailbox that has a bad move request can’t be cleaned up from destination mailbox database in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488261 Event ID 1002 when the store worker process crashes in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488260 New-MailboxExportRequest and New-MailboxImportRequest don’t honor RBAC management scope in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488259 MailTip shows wrong number of users for a distribution group if the users are in different domains in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4488258 OAuth authentication is removed when saving MAPI virtual directory settings in EAC in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4490060 Exchange Web Services Push Notifications can be used to gain unauthorized access
  • 4490059 Reducing permissions required to run Exchange Server using Shared Permissions Model

Exchange 2016 CU12 fixes:

  • 4487596 Emails are blocked in moderator mailbox Outbox folder when you send large volumes of emails in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4456241 You receive a meeting request that has a “not supported calendar message.ics” attachment in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4456239 New-MailboxRepairRequest doesn’t honor RBAC RecipientWriteScope restrictions in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4487591 The recipient scope setting doesn’t work for sibling domains when including OUs in the scope in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4468363 MRM does not work for mailboxes that have an online archive mailbox in Exchange Server
  • 4487603 “The action cannot be completed” error when you select many recipients in the Address Book of Outlook in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4487602 Outlook for Mac users can still expand a distribution group when hideDLMembership is set to true in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488076 Outlook on the Web can’t be loaded when users use an invalid Windows language in operating system in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488079 Exchange Server 2016 allows adding Exchange Server 2019 mailbox server into a same DAG and vice versa
  • 4488077 Can’t configure voice mail options when user is in different domain in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488263 X-MS-Exchange-Organization-BCC header isn’t encoded correctly in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488080 New-MigrationBatch doesn’t honor RBAC management scope in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488262 Delivery Reports exception when tracking a meeting request that’s sent with a room resource in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488268 Disable the irrelevant Query logs that’re created in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488267 Test-OAuthConnectivity always fails when Exchange Server uses proxy to connect to Internet in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488266 Client application doesn’t honor EwsAllowList in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488265 “There are problems with the signature” error occurs for digital signature message if attachment filtering is enabled in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488264 Mailbox that has a bad move request can’t be cleaned up from destination mailbox database in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488261 Event ID 1002 when the store worker process crashes in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488260 New-MailboxExportRequest and New-MailboxImportRequest don’t honor RBAC management scope in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488259 MailTip shows wrong number of users for a distribution group if the users are in different domains in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488258 OAuth authentication is removed when saving MAPI virtual directory settings in EAC in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4490060 Exchange Web Services Push Notifications can be used to gain unauthorized access
  • 4490059 Reducing permissions required to run Exchange Server using Shared Permissions Model

Exchange 2013 CU22 fixes:

  • 4487603 “The action cannot be completed” error when you select many recipients in the Address Book of Outlook in Exchange Server 2013
  • 4490060 Exchange Web Services Push Notifications can be used to gain unauthorized access
  • 4490059 Reducing permissions required to run Exchange Server using Shared Permissions Model

Exchange 2010 SP3 RU26 fixes:

  • 4490060 Exchange Web Services Push Notifications can be used to gain unauthorized access

Notes:

  • These Cumulative Updates do not contain schema changes compared to their previous Cumulative Update. However, due to changes in the permissions architecture, you need to run setup /PrepareAD to implement these changes as well as apply any RBAC changes, before deploying or updating Exchange servers.
  • When upgrading from an n-2 or earlier version of Exchange, or an early version of the .NET Framework, consult Upgrade Paths for CU’s & .NET.
  • Don’t forget to put the Exchange server in maintenance mode prior to updating. Regardless, setup will put the server in server-wide offline mode post-analysis, before making actual changes.
  • When using Exchange hybrid deployments or Exchange Online Archiving (EOA), you are required to delay installing at most one version (n-1).
  • If you want to speed up the update process for systems without internet access, you can follow the procedure described here to disable publisher’s certificate revocation checking.
  • Cumulative Updates can be installed directly; no need to install RTM prior to installing Cumulative Updates.
  • Once installed, you can’t uninstall a Cumulative Update nor any of the installed Exchange server roles.
  • The order of installation shouldn’t matter with the “every server is an island” concept, yet recommended is to upgrade internet-facing, non-internet-facing servers first, followed by Edge Transports.

Caution:

As for any update, I recommend to thoroughly test updates in a test environment prior to implementing them in production. When you lack such facilities, hold out a few days and monitor the comments on the original publication or forums for any issues.

CVE-2018-8581: Exchange Vulnerability

Posted on by
3

Ex2013 LogoUpdate Feb6: Added MSRC security advisory ADV190007 .
Update Feb13: February updates comment.

A short notice on the zero-day vulnerability in the Exchange ecosystem as reported by researcher Mollema last week. Through a man-in-the-middle setup, one can exploit the permissions Exchange has with regards to Active Directory in conjunction with NTLM as well as Exchange Web Services (EWS). This 3-stage missile allows one to elevate their privileges in Active Directory, and thus to grant themselves administrative access.

The issue was already logged at 13 november in the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) as CVE-2018-8581, Microsoft Exchange Server Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. An uptake on the public attention for the issue was generated after the Mollema article, and media like The Register started publishing about it. Meanwhile Exchange fellow Tony Redmond also wrote a short note on the issue as well.

At this moment, Microsoft is fully aware of the issue, and is actively working on resolving the issue as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the mitigation mentioned in CVE-2018-8581 can be considered, which is to remove the  DisableLoopbackCheck key from HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa. The effect of removing this key is that it’s no longer possible to make NTLM connections on the loopback adapter (localhost), which should be OK for Kerberos authenticated sessions as they are name-based. Again, test this as for example platforms like SharePoint will break when setting this key, but nobody runs SharePoint on the same box, so for Exchange this is a valid mitigation.

Organizations are advised not to blindly implement mitigations mentioned in Mollema’s article or elsewhere in the field, as they might not be applicable to every deployment out there, or have unforseen side-effects. Then again, organizations might already have things deployed SMB signing, in which case the exploit does not apply.

Update (Feb6): Meanwhile, Microsoft Security Response Center published an advisory (ADV190007) containing guidance on how to deal with the issue at this moment. MSRC takes the EWS Throttling Policy route to block EWS Subscriptions at the original level, which of course breaks Outlook for Mac functionality (e.g. new mail notifications as the client can no longer subscribe to receive updates), or other applications which rely on this mechanism (e.g. meeting room systems). This can be mitigated by explicitly allowing EWS subscriptions for trusted users and applications.

Update (Feb13): Today the quarterly cumulative updates for Exchange 2019/2016/2013 were released, which will remove the DisableLoopbackCheck key (when present).

Security Updates Exchange 2013, 2016 & 2019

Posted on by
3

Ex2013 LogoUpdate 14jan: Added Exchange 2010 SP3 RU25

A quick heads-up as during my vacation Microsoft released security updates for supported releases of Exchange Server 2013, 2016 as well as Exchange Server 2019. In addition, a new Rollup was released for Exchange 2010 as well, containing one of the security updates.

The security updates patch issues as reported in the following Microsoft Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures:

  • CVE-2019-0586: Microsoft Exchange Memory Corruption Vulnerability
  • CVE-2019-0588: Microsoft Exchange Information Disclosure Vulnerability

You can download the security updates here:

Notes:

  • Exchange 2010 SP3 RU25 addresses CVE-2019-0588 only.
  • KB4471389 supersedes KB4468741 and KB4459266; KB4468742 supersedes KB4458321.

Be advised that the Security Updates for Exchange 2013 and 2016 are Cumulative Update level specific. Unfortunately, the security update carries the same name for different CU’s, and you cannot apply the update for Exchange 2016 CU10 to Exchange 2016 CU11. I would suggest tagging the Cumulative Update in the file name when you archive it, e.g. Exchange2016-KB4471389-x64-en-CU10.msp.

As with any patch or update, I’d recommend to thoroughly test this in a test and acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.

Security Updates for Exchange 2016, 2013 and 2010

Posted on by
1

Ex2013 LogoA quick heads-up as during my vacation Microsoft released security updates for supported releases of Exchange Server 2016 and 2013 as well as Exchange Server 2010.

The security updates patch issues as reported in the following Microsoft Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures:

  • CVE-2018-8302 Microsoft Exchange Memory Corruption Vulnerability
  • CVE-2018-8374 Microsoft Exchange Server Tampering Vulnerability (Exchange 2016 only)

You can download the security updates here:

Notes:

  • Be advised that Exchange 2010 SP3 Rollup 23, like recent Cumulative Updates of Exchange 2016 and 2013, requires Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 (download).
  • KB4340731 supersedes the previous security update KB4092041 for Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2013.

Be advised that for Exchange 2013 and 2016, Security Updates are Cumulative Update level specific. While the downloaded security updates may carry the same name, the files are different and you cannot apply the downloaded security update file for Exchange 2016 CU8 to Exchange 2016 CU9. I suggest adding some form of identification of the Cumulative Update to the file name when you archive it, e.g. Exchange2016-KB4340731-x64-en-CU10.msp.

As with any patch or update, I’d recommend to thoroughly test this in a test and acceptance environment first, prior to implementing it in production.