Last month I came to discover that my mail relay options had been changed
from No Relay to Relay for Anyone and overnight (36 hrs about) we passed
thousands of Spam messages.  Our queue mgr was "stuck".  I could not stop it
from the Imail console, task manager, or services window.  I ended up
uninstalling it through DOS.

For reasons I won't elaborate here, I do not feel as though we have
accurately traced the cause of this phenomenon and would like to rebuild our
Imail server.  Since that day, it has been "acting weird" and I don't trust
it's security/integrity anymore.

I made a baseline backup copy of my Windows 2000 Server after I did the
initial install, service packed it and configured it to NSA specifications
but before placing any programs on top of it.  Although restoring from this
backup won't actually reformat the drives, I feel as though that would be a
fine place to revert to.

NOTE:  I don't have anyone actively using this server yet, so I don't have
to worry about mail services interruptions.  No one has mail in their boxes
that is important, just test stuff.

My Plan:
Export mailboxes (with registry settings?)
Export phraselist, kill list, antispam table, exclude list, white list
Restore from backup to Window 2000.
Service Pack 4.
Reinstall Imail from CD.
Reconfigure Imail from scratch (importing the above lists).
Reinstall Imail Antivirus (shame on me for buying it, but I might as well
use it!).
Import mailboxes (with registry settings?)

Questions:
1.  How "safe" it to export/import mailbox registry settings considering my
server may have been compromised from the outside and the Imail program was
directly affected (among other things)?

2.  I have upgraded from 7.11 to 8.1 since the original install.  Should I
repeat the 7.11 install to 8.0 to 8.1 path if I export/import registry
settings to maintain integrity or can I skip to 8.0 (patched) and still use
the imported registry?

3.  I checked the utilities page on the web but struck out.  Does anyone
know of/or would share, a utility that would document my Imail settings?
It'd be easier to rebuild from exported documentation!

I do have backups from just before the problem started so if I forget to
export something, I could always dig it up from those tapes.  I don't want
to rely on those backups since I can't document when the initial hack took
place - it could have been right as the program changes were made, or a
backdoor could have been opened well before.  Still, I have some sort of a
safety net.

If it matters...we have one domain, POP3 boxes, approx. 150 accounts.

BTW:  The Windows ME disks went out yesterday.  I lost that battle, but won
the right to administer my Imail server the way I see fit...to rebuild it!
This IS winning...right?  :o(

As always...I'm thankful for all of your help,
~Amy



To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html
List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/
Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/

Reply via email to