January 2023 Exchange Server Security Updates

Microsoft Exchange Servers security updates have been released for January 2023.

These updates are available for the following specific versions of Exchange Server:

Exchange Server 2013 CU23 SU19
Exchange Server 2016 CU23 SU5
Exchange Server 2019 CU11 SU9 & CU12 SU5

The recommendation is to install these updates immediately to protect your environment.
In the scenario where you do a Cumulative Update(CU), you need to make security updates. Otherwise, remember that you have to do the Cumulative Update(CU) first and then the Security Update(SU).

Inventory your Exchange Servers to determine which updates –> “Exchange Server Health Checker
Choose your current CU and your target CU to get directions –>  “Exchange Update Wizard
If you encounter errors during or after installation of Exchange Server –> “Exchange Setup Assist

Recommended Action :

  • Enable certificate signing of Powershell serialization payload
  • To defend Exchange Servers against attacks on serialized data, added certificate-based signing of PowerShell serialization payloads.
  • If you have a server running Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 in your environment, we recommend that you don’t turn on serialization payload signing for now.
  • In the first stage of rollout, this new feature must be manually enabled by an Exchange Server admin due to feature dependencies.
  • You can use to validate/create the required auth certificate

 

Note: Don't double-click the 'MSP file' to run it. Run Command Prompt (not Powershell) as an Administrator.

 

Have a nice day!

October 2022 Exchange Server Security Updates

Microsoft Exchange Servers security updates have been released for October 2022.

These updates are available for the following specific versions of Exchange Server:

Exchange Server 2013 CU23
Exchange Server 2016 CU22 and CU23
Exchange Server 2019 CU11 and CU12

The recommendation is to install these updates immediately to protect your environment.
In the scenario where you do a Cumulative Update(CU), you need to make security updates. Otherwise, remember that you have to do the Cumulative Update(CU) first and then the Security Update(SU).

The following update paths are available:

 

These vulnerabilities only affect Exchange Server.
Exchange Online customers are already protected from the vulnerabilities addressed.

Note: Don't double-click the 'MSP file' to run it. Run Command Prompt (not Powershell) as an Administrator.

 

Additional Action Require!

As you know, we were doing /PrepareSchema and /PrepareAD operations before CU operations.
There is a new difference in the updates released in May.

The following actions should be taken in addition to the application of May 2022 security updates:

After doing cumulative update and security update then run the following Command Prompt command once using Setup.exe in your Exchange Server installation path "\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Bin"

"Setup.exe /IAcceptExchangeServerLicenseTerms_DiagnosticDataON /P"

Microsoft says that the step is necessary “because of additional security hardening work for CVE-2022-21978,” which is one of the vulnerabilities addressed by the updates.

When running a Database Availability Group, do not forget to put the Exchange Server Cluster(DAG) in maintenance mode.

 

Have a nice day!

2022 H1 Cumulative Updates for Exchange Server

In the previous post, I shared that Microsoft has changed the update service for exchange servers.

It has been announced that the updates will now be released as H1 and H2, at which point the updates for the first 2021 H1 have been released.

It is reported that the new released cumulative updates(CUs) include previous security updates(SUs) and fixes for customer reported.

These updates are available for the following specific builds of Exchange Server:

Exchange Server 2019 CU12
Exchange Server 2016 CU23 (The latest cumulative update package of Exchange 2016 won’t be H2 ! )

Please check knowledge base articles for known issues via CU12 or CU23

Further Information and Guidance
Exchange Team Blog
Upgrade Exchange to the latest Cumulative Update
Exchange Updates Step-by-Step Guide
How to Find Exchange Version and Build Number

Have a nice day !

Exchange Server Cluster(DAG) Maintenance

If you are planning to make cumulative updates to your Exchange Servers, you must first put the server on which you will install the update into maintenance mode.
To perform maintenance on Exchange Servers, follow these steps:

  • First of all, if you are using a load-balancer, make sure that there is no mail traffic to the server you will maintain.
  • Pre-Check 1 – Get-ServerComponentState ExchServerName | ft Component,State -Autosize
  • Pre-Check 2 – Get-MailboxServer ExchServerName | ft DatabaseCopy* -Autosize
  • Pre-Check 3 – Get-ClusterNode ExchServerName| fl
  • Pre-Check 4 – Get-Queue
  • Maintenance 1 – Set-ServerComponentState ExchServerName -Component HubTransport -State Draining -Requester Maintenance
  • Maintenance 2 – Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
  • Maintenance 3 – Get-Queue
  • Maintenance 4 – CD $ExScripts
    .\StartDagServerMaintenance.ps1 -serverName ExchServerName -MoveComment Maintenance -PauseClusterNode
  • Maintenance 5 – Redirect-Message -Server ExchServerName -Target OtherServerName
  • Maintenance 6 – Suspend-ClusterNode ExchServerName
  • Maintenance 7 – Set-MailboxServer ExchServerName -DatabaseCopyActivationDisabledAndMoveNow $True
  • Maintenance 8 – Set-MailboxServer ExchServerName -DatabaseCopyAutoActivationPolicy Blocked
  • Maintenance 9 – Set-ServerComponentState ExchServerName -Component ServerWideOffline -State Inactive -Requester Maintenance
  • Control 1 – Get-ServerComponentState ExchServerName | ft Component,State -Autosize
  • Control 2 – Get-MailboxServer ExchServerName | ft DatabaseCopy* -Autosize
    Get-ClusterNode ExchServerName | fl
    Get-Queue

By the way, if you have made changes to the configuration files (Web.config,Edgetransport.exe.config etc) before starting the update process, it is recommended to backup them, because the changes you made after the update will return to their default settings.

You can now update the server.

After completing the update process we need to take the server out of maintenance mode.

  • After 1 – Set-ServerComponentState ExchServerName -Component ServerWideOffline -State Active -Requester Maintenance
  • After 2 – CD $ExScripts
    .\StopDagServerMaintenance.ps1 -serverName ExchServerName
  • After 3 – Set-ServerComponentState ExchServerName -Component HubTransport -State Active -Requester Maintenance
  • After 4 – Restart-Service MSExchangeTransport
  • After 5 – Get-ServerComponentState ExchServerName | ft Component,State -Autosize

 

If you have specific configuration backups, you can compare them with your backups and rearrange them. (Don’t forget to restart the server)

Now you can add your server to the load-balancer again and include it in the mail traffic.

 

Have a nice day !

Issue fix “MicrosoftExchangeServiceHost” Crash : March 2022 Security Update

Some Exchange systems after installing the March 2022 Security Update, you may receive errors related to the “Microsoft Exchange Service Host” service may crash repeatedly.

Event ID 4999 (Application Log)
Watson report about to be sent for process id: 4564, with parameters: E12IIS, c-RTL-AMD64, 15.01.2375.024, M.Exchange.ServiceHost, M.Exchange.Diagnostics, M.E.D.ChainedSerializationBinder.LoadType, M.E.Diagnostics.BlockedDeserializeTypeException, c0e9-dumptidset, 15.01.2375.024.

Root Cause; If there are any expired certificates or certificates nearing expiration on the Exchange Server.
Workaroud; Replace any expired certificates and, if you are on Exchange Server 2016 or Exchange Server 2019, follow these steps:

  • Must have temporary full access to the arbitration mailbox
    Get-Mailbox -Arbitration "SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}" | Add-MailboxPermission -User AdminAccount -AccessRights FullAccess
  • Run the Remove Expiry Notification script from Exchange Management Shell (user with full permission assigned to arbitration mailbox)
    Remove-CertExpiryNotifications.ps1 -Server ExchangeServer -Confirm:$false
  • Check all the messages are deleted , again run script it should report that there are no messages present in the folder
    Remove-CertExpiryNotifications.ps1 -Server ExchangeServer -WhatIf
  • Start the MSExchangeServiceHost service and confirm that it is not crashing
  • Revoke the full access permission
    Get-Mailbox -Arbitration "SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e6c29d823ed9}" | Remove-MailboxPermission -User AdminAccount -AccessRights FullAccess
  • Renew any certificates that expire

Have a nice day !

March 2022 Exchange Server Security Updates

Microsoft Exchange Servers security updates have been released for March 2022.

These updates are available for the following specific builds of the Exchange Server:

Exchange Server 2013 CU23
Exchange Server 2016 CU21 and CU22
Exchange Server 2019 CU10 and CU11

The recommendation is to install these updates immediately to protect your environment.
You can installation security patches if you are in the specified Cumulative Update(CU) versions.

If you aren’t in the specified cumulative updates, you must first installation cumulative updates.

Note : Don't double-click the 'MSP file' to run it. Run Command Prompt (not powershell) as an Administrator.

Further Information and Guidance
Exchange Team Blog
Exchange Updates Step-by-Step Guide
Determine Which Updates are Needed
Security Update Guide

Have a nice day !

May 2021 Exchange Server Security Updates

Microsoft Exchange Servers security updates have been released for May 2021.

These updates are available for the following specific builds of Exchange Server:

Exchange Server 2013 CU23
Exchange Server 2016 CU19 and CU20
Exchange Server 2019 CU8 and CU9

Recommendation is to install these updates immediately to protect your environment.
You can installation security patches if you are in the specified Cumulative Update(CU) versions.

If you aren’t in the specified cumulative updates, you must first installation cumulative updates.

Note : Don't double-click the 'MSP file' to run it. Run Command Prompt (not powershell) as an Administrator.

Further Information and Guidance
Exchange Team Blog
Vulnerabilities and Exposures
Security Update Guide
Cumulative Update “Tell me the steps

Have a nice day!