Tarpitting interval must be set.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-33578	Exch-2-739	SV-43998r1_rule	ECSC-1	Medium

Description
Tarpitting is the practice of artificially delaying server responses for specific SMTP communication patterns that indicate high volumes of SPAM or other unwelcome messages. The intent of tarpitting is to slow down the communication process for SPAM batches so that the cost effectiveness of sending SPAM is reduced and directory harvest attacks may be thwarted. A directory harvest attack is an attempt to collect valid email addresses from a particular organization so that the email addresses can be added to a spam database. A program can be written to collect email addresses that return a 'Recipient OK' SMTP response and discards all email addresses that return a 'User unknown' SMTP response. Tarpitting makes directory harvest attacks too costly to automate efficiently.

Description

Tarpitting is the practice of artificially delaying server responses for specific SMTP communication patterns that indicate high volumes of SPAM or other unwelcome messages. The intent of tarpitting is to slow down the communication process for SPAM batches so that the cost effectiveness of sending SPAM is reduced and directory harvest attacks may be thwarted. A directory harvest attack is an attempt to collect valid email addresses from a particular organization so that the email addresses can be added to a spam database. A program can be written to collect email addresses that return a 'Recipient OK' SMTP response and discards all email addresses that return a 'User unknown' SMTP response. Tarpitting makes directory harvest attacks too costly to automate efficiently.

STIG	Date
Exchange 2010 Edge Transport Server STIG	2013-07-12

Details

Check Text ( C-41683r1_chk )
Open the Exchange Management Shell and enter the following command: Get-ReceiveConnector \| Select Name, Identity, TarpitInterval If the value of 'TarpitInterval' is not set to 00:00:05 or greater, this is a finding.

Fix Text (F-37469r1_fix)
Open the Exchange Management Shell and enter the following command: Set-ReceiveConnector -Identity <'ReceiveConnector'> -TarpitInterval 00:00:05