Tarpitting interval must be set.

From Exchange 2010 Edge Transport Server STIG

Associated with IA controls: ECSC-1

SV-43998r1_rule Tarpitting interval must be set.

Vulnerability discussion

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.

Check content

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

Open the Exchange Management Shell and enter the following command: Set-ReceiveConnector -Identity <'ReceiveConnector'> -TarpitInterval 00:00:05

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