[ISN] Security UPDATE--Email Filtering--June 2, 2004

From: InfoSec News (isn@private)
Date: Thu Jun 03 2004 - 00:32:26 PDT

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    1. In Focus: Want A Junk-Free Inbox? Then Filter It
    
    2. Security News and Features
       - Recent Security Vulnerabilities
       - Feature: Coping with Today's Killer App
       - News: Report from the Phishing Spot
       - Feature: A First Look at the New MBSA
       - News: Microsoft Partnering to Sell ISA Server Appliances
    
    3. Instant Poll
    
    4. Security Toolkit
       - FAQ
       - Featured Thread
    
    5. New and Improved
       - Monitor Your Server from Anywhere in the World
    
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    ==== 1. In Focus: Want A Junk-Free Inbox? Then Filter It ====
       by Mark Joseph Edwards, News Editor, mark at ntsecurity dot net
    
    Last week, I wrote about DomainKeys, Sender Policy Framework (SPF),
    and CallerID for E-Mail. All three technologies have been submitted to
    the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as draft proposals. Since
    then, the developers of SPF and Microsoft (the developer of CallerID)
    have agreed to merge the two technologies into one. A new draft
    proposal will be created and submitted to the IETF; however, the name
    for the new technology has yet to be formalized.
    
    If you're interested in some of the ideas regarding how the two
    technologies will operate after they're merged, be sure to read Meng
    Weng Wong's outline of how things might pan out. Wong is one of the
    SPF developers, and you can find his outline in the SPF mailing list
    archives.
    http://archives.listbox.com/spf-discuss@private/200405/0199.html
    
    Last week, I pointed out that people who intend to use any or all of
    the three new technologies to help filter unwanted email will also
    need to use other technologies in combination with them because none
    of the three new technologies, not even all of them together, will
    completely stop unwanted email. A reader of this newsletter who also
    participates in the SPF mailing list asked SPF mailing list members
    whether my statement was true. The short answer is "yes," and another
    list member explains why.
    http://archives.listbox.com/spf-discuss@private/200405/0373.html
    
    Another reader of this newsletter wrote to tell me that his Hotmail
    account is spam free. That may be true; however, I doubt that all
    other Hotmail accounts are in the same situation. Regardless, the way
    Hotmail (or any technology, for that matter) eliminates junk mail is
    to filter it by any of the available various methods, because that's
    the only way to do it without resorting to short-term disposable email
    addresses. Of course, such filtering relies on a variety of
    parameters, including known junk-mail-message content, known domains
    and networks that service spammers, open mail relays, keywords, key
    phrases, content types, block lists, allow lists, and so on. In the
    near future, DomainKeys and the combined SPF/CallerID will be a couple
    of additional mechanisms that will definitely be used for mail
    filtering. As you may know, the current rendition of SPF is already
    part of several mail-filtering packages; undoubtedly, such integration
    will continue. If you intend to curb unwanted email, you'll need to
    adapt to a method of filtering and tune that method as necessary.
    
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    ==== 2. Security News and Features ====
    
    Recent Security Vulnerabilities
       If you subscribe to this newsletter, you also receive Security
    Alerts, which inform you about recently discovered security
    vulnerabilities. You can also find information about these discoveries
    at
       http://www.winnetmag.com/departments/departmentid/752/752.html
    
    Feature: Coping with Today's Killer App
       Some people are still waiting for the next killer app to emerge.
    But in my view, email is the killer app and has been for the past
    several years. Email has opened up easy communication for people both
    inside and outside an organization. It's a fast and convenient
    transport and distribution mechanism for vital information and enables
    an organization to operate smoothly. For many companies, email is a
    mission-critical component: If email is down, the business
    suffers--sometimes dramatically. In this article, Michael Otey
    discusses the need to treat email as the vital company resource it is
    and protect it.
       http://www.winnetmag.com/article/articleid/42593/42593.html
    
    News: Report from the Phishing Spot
       According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, in April, 1125 unique
    scams tried to obtain sensitive information from customers of 12
    well-known companies, including Citibank, U.S. Bank, eBay, PayPal, and
    Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In March, the group
    tracked 402 scams against 18 companies. As of the last week in May,
    half as many companies had been targeted as in April, but the total
    number of scams for the month was unreported.
       http://www.winnetmag.com/article/articleid/42785/42785.html
    
    Feature: A First Look at the New MBSA
       Microsoft recently released a new version of Microsoft Baseline
    Security Analyzer (MBSA), a free security auditing and reporting tool.
    MBSA 1.2 has many enhancements that improve its functionality for
    system and security administrators. In addition to the ability to scan
    10,000 machines in one run, MBSA now audits against a Microsoft
    Software Update Services (SUS) server and, when run locally, reports
    on macro settings in Microsoft Office products, the state of the
    Automatic Updates client, and the state of the Internet Connection
    Firewall (ICF). Paula Sharick gives an overview of the more notable
    new features in MBSA 1.2 in this article on our Web site.
       http://www.winnetmag.com/article/articleid/42757/42757.html
    
    News: Microsoft Partnering to Sell ISA Server Appliances
       Microsoft announced at the Tech Ed 2004 conference in San Diego
    last week that it will team with hardware vendors to begin selling
    security appliances. The company aims to provide customers with a
    dedicated hardware solution that runs Internet Security and
    Acceleration Server (ISA) 2004, which is currently in beta testing.
    The solution will become available in the third quarter of this year
    from HP, Network Engines, Celestix Networks, and Avantis. The starting
    price will be $1499 per CPU, per server.
       http://www.microsoft.com/isaserver/beta/hardwaresolutions.asp
    
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    ==== 4. Security Toolkit ====
    
    FAQ: How can I enable forms-based authentication for an Exchange
    Server 2003 system that hosts Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA)?
       by John Savill, http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsnt20002003faq
    
    A. After you enable Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) on a Microsoft Internet
    Information Services 5.0 (IIS) server (as I describe in the FAQ "How
    can I obtain a certificate so that I can enable Secure Sockets Layer
    (SSL) on my Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0 (IIS)
    server?"), you can enable forms-based authentication on the server by
    performing these steps:
    
       1. Start the Exchange System Manager (ESM) utility (click Start,
    Programs, Microsoft Exchange, System Manager).
       2. Navigate to the OWA server (Administrator Groups,
    &ltAdministrative group name>, Servers, &ltServer name>).
       3. Expand Protocols and expand HTTP.
       4. Right-click the HTTP virtual server and click Properties.
       5. Click the Settings tab of the displayed dialog box.
       6. Select the "Enable Forms Based Authentication" check box and
    click OK.
    
    If you want to stop non-SSL connections to your Exchange server, you
    can modify the Exchange virtual directory through the Microsoft
    Management Console (MMC) IIS snap-in as follows:
    
       1. Access the Exchange virtual directory's Properties page.
       2. Click the Directory Security tab.
       3. Click Edit, and in the Secure Communication section, select the
    "Require secure channel (SSL)" check box.
    
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       (Seven messages in this thread)
       A reader writes that he recently downloaded a simple port scanner
    program and scanned his Windows Server 2003 test server. He found that
    the server is running the following services: Domain Controller for
    his test Active Directory (AD), DHCP, DNS, FTP, File/Print Server, and
    RRAS with 2 NICs--one connected to a cable modem and the other to the
     LAN.
       After the port scanner has scanned all the ports of the WAN IP, its
    report shows that numerous other ports are open. The reader wants to
    know how to find out which programs are listening on each of the ports
    and how worms work (because he suspects that a worm might be able to
    infiltrate his system on one of the listening ports). Lend a hand or
    read the responses:
    http://www.winnetmag.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=42&threadid=121555
    
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