Non-existent recipients must not be blocked.
An XCCDF Rule
Description
<VulnDiscussion>SPAM originators, in an effort to refine mailing lists, sometimes use a technique where they first create fictitious names, and then monitor rejected emails for non-existent recipients. Those not rejected, of course, are deemed to exist, and are therefore used in future SPAM mailings. To prevent this disclosure of existing email accounts to Spammers, this feature should not be employed. Instead, it is recommended that all messages be received, then evaluated and disposed of without enabling the sender to determine recipients that are existing vs. non-existing. </VulnDiscussion><FalsePositives></FalsePositives><FalseNegatives></FalseNegatives><Documentable>false</Documentable><Mitigations></Mitigations><SeverityOverrideGuidance></SeverityOverrideGuidance><PotentialImpacts></PotentialImpacts><ThirdPartyTools></ThirdPartyTools><MitigationControl></MitigationControl><Responsibility></Responsibility><IAControls>ECSC-1</IAControls>
- ID
- SV-44060r1_rule
- Severity
- Medium
- Updated
Remediation - Manual Procedure
Open the Exchange Management Shell and enter the following command:
Set-RecipientFilterConfig -RecipientValidationEnabled $False