Exchange must have anti-spam filtering enabled.

Overview

Finding ID	Version	Rule ID	IA Controls	Severity
V-228394	EX16-MB-000500	SV-228394r879653_rule		Medium

Description
Originators of spam messages are constantly changing their techniques in order to defeat spam countermeasures; therefore, spam software must be constantly updated to address the changing threat. A manual update procedure is labor intensive and does not scale well in an enterprise environment. This risk may be mitigated by using an automatic update capability. Spam protection mechanisms include, for example, signature definitions, rule sets, and algorithms. Exchange 2016 provides both anti-spam and anti-malware protection out of the box. The Exchange 2016 anti-spam and anti-malware product capabilities are limited but still provide some protection.

Description

Originators of spam messages are constantly changing their techniques in order to defeat spam countermeasures; therefore, spam software must be constantly updated to address the changing threat. A manual update procedure is labor intensive and does not scale well in an enterprise environment. This risk may be mitigated by using an automatic update capability. Spam protection mechanisms include, for example, signature definitions, rule sets, and algorithms. Exchange 2016 provides both anti-spam and anti-malware protection out of the box. The Exchange 2016 anti-spam and anti-malware product capabilities are limited but still provide some protection.

STIG	Date
Microsoft Exchange 2016 Mailbox Server Security Technical Implementation Guide	2023-12-18

Details

Check Text ( C-30627r496978_chk )
Review the Email Domain Security Plan (EDSP). Note: If using another DoD-approved anti-spam product for email or a DoD-approved email gateway spamming device, such as Enterprise Email Security Gateway (EEMSG), this is not applicable (NA). Open the Exchange Management Shell and enter the following command: Get-ContentFilterConfig \| Format-Table Name,Enabled; Get-SenderFilterConfig \| Format-Table Name,Enabled; Get-SenderIDConfig \| Format-Table Name,Enabled; Get-SenderReputationConfig \| Format-Table Name,Enabled If any of the following values returned are not set to "True", this is a finding: Set-ContentFilterConfig Set-SenderFilterConfig Set-SenderIDConfig Set-SenderReputationConfig

Check Text ( C-30627r496978_chk )

Review the Email Domain Security Plan (EDSP).

Note: If using another DoD-approved anti-spam product for email or a DoD-approved email gateway spamming device, such as Enterprise Email Security Gateway (EEMSG), this is not applicable (NA).

Open the Exchange Management Shell and enter the following command:

Get-ContentFilterConfig | Format-Table Name,Enabled; Get-SenderFilterConfig | Format-Table Name,Enabled; Get-SenderIDConfig | Format-Table Name,Enabled; Get-SenderReputationConfig | Format-Table Name,Enabled

If any of the following values returned are not set to "True", this is a finding:

Set-ContentFilterConfig
Set-SenderFilterConfig
Set-SenderIDConfig
Set-SenderReputationConfig

Fix Text (F-30612r496979_fix)
Update the EDSP with the anti-spam mechanism used. Open the Exchange Management Shell and enter the following command for any values that were not set to "True": Set-ContentFilterConfig -Enabled $true Set-SenderFilterConfig -Enabled $true Set-SenderIDConfig -Enabled $true Set-SenderReputationConfig -Enabled $true