Category Archives: Misc

MVP’s around the World (2019)

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mvp

Update: Updated statistics based on award categories (not people) due to the number of multi-category awardees.

In previous years, I performed some comparisons on the MVP population after every award cycle. So, time to get some fresh statistics after July 2019 award cycle.

For comparison, I had a look at the public MVP statistics of July 3rd, 2018 against those of July 3rd, 2019, as the public MVP site was closed the first two days. From the numbers, it is clear that this cycle the number of MVPs went down again, from 3.030 last year, to 2.634 now (-13%).

The following table contains the changes per award category from July 2018 to
July 2019:

CompetenceJul-18Jul-19Change
AI588445%
Business Applications1641660%
Cloud and Datacenter Management303232-23%
Data Platform369332-10%
Enterprise Mobility122106-13%
Microsoft Azure444409-8%
Office Development334742%
Office Apps & Services606491-19%
Developer Technologies781644-17%
Windows and Devices for IT8757-34%
Windows Development186119-37%
Total MVPs30662634-14%

Few notes:

  • The total number of MVP’s doesn’t equal the total number of awards, as people can be awarded in more than one category; there are 52 MVP’s with multiple award categories (one even in 3 categories).
  • Former single product categories, such as Access or OneNote, were moved under the Office Apps & Services category (which was rebranded from Office Servers & Services). Those numbers are merged for the 2018 column.
  • When comparing to earlier years, the award categories were restructured in 2017, e.g. Visual Studio and Development Technologies became Developer Technologies.

When zooming in on the Office Apps & Services category, the awards per country are shown below. Be advised that 26 are anonymous MVP’s or have profiles without location.

CountryJul’18Jul’19CountryJul’18Jul’19CountryJul’18 Jul’19
ARE12GBR2328POL24
AUS1720HRV54PRK612
AUT23HUN22PRT32
BEL88IND1213RUS58
BGR12IRL11SAU11
BIH11ISR1SGP33
BRA210ITA86SLV1
CAN2831JOR11SRB11
CHE42JPN1122SVK11
CHN1416LKA41SVN12
COL24MEX25SWE65
CRI1MKD22THA13
CZE32MYS11TUR42
DEU1725NGA11TWN3
DNK26NLD1321UKR12
EGY11NOR56URY11
ESP58NPL11USA89120
FIN23NZL46ZAF45
FRA1620PAK22

The countries Argentina, Chile, Latvia, Peru, Romania and Greece are no longer represented in the Office Apps & Services category, while Costa Rica, Israel, Taiwan and El Salvador are new to the table.

MonthOct
2016		Jan
2017		Jun
2017		Jul
2017		Jun
2018		Jul
2018		Mar
2019		Jul
2019
OSS538505
(-7%)		532
(+5%)		449
(-16%)		490
(+2%)		383
(-21%)		622
(+62%)		491
(-22%)
TotalN/AN/A41343490
(-16%)		3815
(+2%)		3030
(-21%) 		3205
(+6%)		2635
(-18%)

Above are the number of Office Apps & Services and total number of MVP’s over the last years. Do note that for March and July 2019 the former product categories are included in the Office Apps & Services category, hence why I included March to have a sense of the changes in the July cycle.

If you have questions or comments, please send them in the comments below.

2019-2020 Microsoft MVP Award

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With great honor and joy I can announce that I have been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award in the category Office Apps & Services.

Microsoft reports there are around 2.000 MVP awardees worldwide. Those awards are given to individuals in recognition of their contributions to the community, such as writing, speaking engagements, supporting people, code contributions or product feedback.

This is my 6th consecutive year as an MVP. Lots of kudos to the MVP leads and other involved in the monstrous task of reviewing and evaluating thousands of contributions for this award cycle.

Many thanks to the community, readers, followers, fellow MVP’s and friends, peers, product groups and other Microsoft employees for their encouragement, inspiration and support over all those years.

My MVP profile can be found here.

Exchange Updates – June 2019

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Exchange2019LogoToday, the Exchange Team released the quarterly Cumulative Updates for Exchange Server 2019, Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2013.

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

VersionBuildKBDownloadUMLPSchema
Exchange 2019 CU215.2.397.3KB4488401VLSC N
Exchange 2016 CU1315.1.1779.2KB4488406DownloadUMLPN
Exchange 2013 CU2315.0.1497.2KB4489622DownloadUMLPN

These updates contain the following important changes and notes (more information in the original article):

  • Reduced required permissions of Exchange in Active Directory.
  • Introduction of support for .NET Framework 4.8, with 4.7.2 becoming the minimum required version.
  • Introduction of Organization-level Authentication Policies.
  • Upcoming support for Modern Authentication for Exchange Hybrid deployments.
  • Controlled Public Folder visibility for Exchange 2019 & 2016.

Exchange 2019 CU2 fixes:

  • 4502134 Can’t get all the emails when searching mailbox by using an end date that’s different from today in Exchange Server 2019
  • 4502135 Correct the error message that you receive when installing Exchange Server 2019 in an organization that has Exchange Server 2010 installed
  • 4502154 Providing information to administrators when auto forward limit is reached in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4502155 “The primary SMTP address must be specified when referencing a mailbox” error when you use impersonation in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4502156 Audit logs aren’t updated when “-WhatIf” is used as $false in the command in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4502157 The Find command not returning the HasAttachments element in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4502158 SyncFolderItems contains duplicated ReadFlagChange items in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4502131 “TLS negotiation failed with error UnknownCredentials” error after you update TLSCertificateName on Office 365 send connector in Exchange Server 2019 hybrid environment
  • 4502132 Can’t reply to old emails after migration even though old legacyExchangeDN is set to migrated mailbox in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4502136 The response of FETCH (BODYSTRUCTURE) command of IMAP violates RFC 3501 in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4502140 Can’t preview an eDiscovery search when there are multiple domains in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4502141 Appointment that’s created by responding to an email message doesn’t show in any Outlook calendar views in Exchange Server 2019 and Exchange Server 2016
  • 4502133 Can’t use Outlook on the web to reply a partner email through mutual TLS in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4488396 Can’t search any results in manually added shared mailbox in Outlook in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4488078 Public folder contact lists don’t show contact’s profile picture in Outlook on the web in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4499503 Heavy organizational forms traffic because of materialized restriction when organization forms library has more than 500 items in Exchange Server 2019 and 2016
  • 4503027 Description of the security update for Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 and 2016: June 11, 2019

Exchange 2016 CU13 fixes:

  • 4502154 Providing information to administrators when auto forward limit is reached in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4502155 “The primary SMTP address must be specified when referencing a mailbox” error when using impersonation in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4502156 Audit logs aren’t updated when “-WhatIf” is used as $false in the command in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4502157 The Find command not returning the HasAttachments element in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4502158 SyncFolderItems contains duplicated ReadFlagChange items in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4502131 “TLS negotiation failed with error UnknownCredentials” error after updating TLSCertificateName on Office 365 send connector in Exchange Server 2016 hybrid environment
  • 4502132 Can’t reply to old emails after migration even though old legacyExchangeDN is set to migrated mailbox in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4502136 The response of FETCH (BODYSTRUCTURE) command of IMAP violates RFC 3501 in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4502140 Can’t preview an eDiscovery search when there are multiple domains in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4502141 Appointment that’s created by responding to an email message doesn’t show in any of Outlook calendar views in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4502133 Can’t use Outlook on the web to reply a partner email through mutual TLS in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488396 Can’t search any results in manually added shared mailbox in Outlook in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4488078 Public folder contact lists don’t show contact’s profile picture in Outlook on the web in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4499503 Heavy organizational forms traffic due to materialized restriction when organization forms library has more than 500 items in Exchange Server 2016
  • 4503027 Description of the security update for Microsoft Exchange Server 2019 and 2016: June 11, 2019

Exchange 2013 CU23 fixes:

  • 4502131 “TLS negotiation failed with error UnknownCredentials” error after updating TLSCertificateName on Office 365 send connector in Exchange Server 2013 hybrid environment
  • 4503028 Description of the security update for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and 2010: June 11, 2019

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.

Security Updates for Spoofing Vulnerability

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

MVP’s around the World

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mvpUpdated July 3rd:  Includes newly registered awardees and awardees who changed category. Added overview of Office Servers and Services numbers over last couple of years.

With the latest annual award cycle, one might be curious which impact it had on the MVP population. I performed a similar exercise last year to compare the impact of the start of the new award cycle. This year, all the MVP’s previously on the January and October cycles were also included in the reviews, making this year the first one where MVP leads and others had to perform the dauntless task of reviewing community contributions of over 3,500 people.

For comparison, I had a look at the public MVP statistics of July 1st against those of June 26th, to exclude significant noise from the monthly awardees. To start, let us first have a look at the total population of MVP’s. From the numbers, it is clear some type of correction took place, as the total number of MVP’s went down from 3,815 last month to 3,025 now (-21%).

As big changes might be a result of change of focus, the following table contains the changes per award category from June 2018 to July 2018. Note that the total number of MVP’s doesn’t equal the total number of awardees, as people can be awarded in more than one category; there are 50 MVP’s with multiple award categories.

Competence Jun2018 July2018 Change
Access 39 29 -26%
AI 28 58 107%
Business Solutions 221 184 -17%
Cloud and Datacenter Management 410 302 -26%
Data Platform 442 366 -17%
Enterprise Mobility 159 122 -23%
Excel 103 84 -18%
Microsoft Azure 370 368 -1%
Office Development 44 33 -25%
Office Servers and Services 490 383 -22%
OneNote 15 12 -20%
Outlook 14 11 -21%
PowerPoint 40 34 -15%
Visio 15 10 -33%
Visual Studio and Development
Technologies		 1043 780 -25%
Windows and Devices for IT 136 87 -36%
Windows Development 273 186 -32%
Word 23 19 -17%
Total 3865 3066 -21%

Except for the AI MVP’s, all the numbers are down. Way down. Word is quite a number of long-standing MVP’s have not been re-awarded this cycle. One could only guess for the motivation (only Microsoft knows), but it could be due to the ongoing shift from on-premises technology to cloud-based technology.

When zooming in on the Office Servers and Services MVP’s category, the awards per country is shown in the following heath map and table. Be advised that MVP’s that are anonymous or have profiles without location (~23 for Office Servers and Services), are not taken into account since their location is unknown.

image

Country Number Country Number Country Number
Argentina 0 (-100%) Ireland 1 (0%) Saudi Arabia 1 (0%)
Australia 17 (-40%) Israel 0 (-100%) Serbia 1 (0%)
Austria 2 (0%) Italy 8 (-20%) Singapore 3 (-25%)
Belgium 8 (0%) Japan 11 (-45%) Slovakia 1 (0%)
Bosnia-Herzegovina 2 (0%) Jordan 1 (0%) Slovenia 1 (-50%)
Brazil 2 (-34%) Korea 6 (-15%) South Africa 4 (-20%)
Bulgaria 1 (0%) Latvia 1 (0%) Spain 5 (-17%)
Canada 29 (-24%) Macedonia F.Y.R.O 2 (0%) Sri Lanka 4 (-43%)
Chile 1 (0%) Malaysia 1 (-50%) Sweden 6 (-25%)
China 14 (-13%) Mexico 2 (-50%) Switzerland 5 (0%)
Colombia 2 (0%) Nepal 1 (0%) Thailand 1 (0%)
Croatia 5 (-17%) New Zealand 4 (-20%) The Netherlands 13 (-8%)
Czech Republic 3 (-25%) Norway 5 (-17%) Turkey 4 (-20%)
Denmark 2 (-50%) Pakistan 2 (0%) Ukraine 1 (-50%)
Egypt 1 (-50%) Peru 1 (-50%) United Arab Emirates 1 (-50%)
Finland 2 (0%) Poland 2 (0%) United Kingdom 23 (-15%)
France 15 (-12%) Portugal 3 (-25%) United States 90 (-19%)
Germany 16 (-20%) Romania 1 (-50%) Uruguay 1 (0%)
Greece 1 (0%) Russia 5 (-50%) Vietnam 0 (-100%)
Hungary 2 (-50%) TOTAL 383 (-22%)
India 12 (-8%)

As shown, some countries have lost their Office Servers and Service MVP’s completely. Looking at the total number of Office Servers and Services MVP’s over the year, the number went a little up again due to monthly awardees, but with the July cycle, the number of Office Servers and Services MVP’s went from 490 to 383 (-22%).

The number of Office Servers and Services and total number of MVP’s over the last years (since award restructuring).

Month oct2016 jan2017 jun2017 jul2017 jan2018 jun2018 jul2018
OSS 538 505 (-7%) 532 (+5%) 449 (-16%) 480 (+6%) 490 (+2%) 383 (-21%)
Total N/A N/A 4134 3490 (-16%) 3747 (+7%) 3815 (+2%) 3030  (-21%)

Unfortunately, I have no data on the other categories from before june 2017.

If you have questions or comments, please discuss in the comments.

2018-2019 Microsoft MVP Award

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With great joy and honor I can announce that I have been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Award in the category Office Servers and Services (localized e-mail):

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MVP awards are given to individuals by Microsoft in recognition of their contributions to the community, such as:

  • Writing blogs, articles, books.
  • Speaking engagements or podcasts.
  • Supporting others, e.g. forum or TechCommunity contributions.
  • Code contributions.
  • Product feedback.

This is my 5th consecutive year as an MVP. I used to be an “October MVP”, which meant my award was up in October every year. After the award cycle changed to a yearly one for everyone, this year was the first time all MVP’s who fell under the old quarterly cycles, were being up for renewal. It also meant, contributions of a longer period of time were being evaluated. So lots of kudos to the MVP leads and other folks that had to go through the monstrous task of reviewing thousands of contributions for this cycle.

Many thanks to the community, readers, followers, fellow MVP’s and friends, peers, product groups and other Microsoft employees for their encouragement, inspiration and support over all those years.

My MVP profile can be found here.