SEMblog

Over the weekend one of my clients suffered an authenticated user attack on the SMTP interface of the Exchange 2003 server. This was detected by the monitoring tool I use, HoundDog (http://www.hounddogiseasy.com/referrer.html?code=YNPX) .

The attack was unsuccessful, as I have all of the authentication options disabled.

However what was interesting was the list of usernames that were tried. Some of them are to be expected, but others maybe not so. I have included the list at the end of this posting.

What this list tells you is the usernames that should be avoided, as some of them may well be used as test accounts, with basic or no passwords and therefore may well be easily compromised.
As authenticated user relaying is enabled by default on Exchange 2000 and 2003, if an account can be compromised, even with limited privileges, it can be used to relay spam through your server.

If you do not have anyone using POP3/IMAP accounts on your Exchange server, then authenticated relaying should be disabled completely. It is not required for the correct operation of Exchange with MAPI, Outlook RPC over HTTPS, Outlook Web Access and Windows Mobile or Blackberry use.
If you do have POP3/IMAP users then lock down the authenticated relay to those specific users only. I have added a link to my article on amset.info with instructions on how to do that below.

If you are a victim of an authenticated user attack then remember that most of them are not against you or your company directly, but a spammer wanting to use your bandwidth to send their messages, whether this is to sell something or a phishing attack.

Related Articles
Securing the authenticated relaying: http://www.amset.info/exchange/smtp-relaysecure.asp
Spam Cleanup: http://www.amset.info/exchange/spam-cleanup.asp

List of Usernames Targeted During Authenticated User Attack

webmaster
service
web
info
root
backup
tech
test
Administrateur
administrator
admin
tunnel
nagios
visitor
access
account
data
server
user