It’s only been a few hours into the new year 2022 and there are already security issues to report in the tech world. The victim this time is Microsoft’s well-known Exchange software, which has been having problems working since 2022 started.
From what is being very actively reported, this issue started as early as 2022 started and prevents email messages from being delivered. There is already a solution to solve this problem, which is simple to apply by administrators.
Called Y2K22, this is a new bug that is affecting all systems with recent versions of Microsoft Exchange. The problem reported by many administrators This email system reports that messages leaving these servers simply stop being sent.
The flaw is in the 2013, 2016 and 2019 versions of Exchange, in particular in the anti-spam and anti-malware component that exists in this service. The name Y2K22 comes from a date conversion issue, which had received an update to address this issue.
Investigations done to identify the flaw report that everything will be in a single variable and its type. This is int32, which has a maximum allowed value which is now being exceeded. The solution would be to use an int long variable, which holds much larger values.
Of course, Microsoft will have to release an update very soon to solve this problem in Exchange, and it is apparently simple to solve. Everything will be in the change of said variable, which will then be able to finally convert the date to an accepted value and without returning any error.
A workaround already exists for this problem with Microsoft software. It involves disabling the components that are showing errors, that is, anti-spam and anti-malware. This process is accomplished with a simple PowerShell command.
Unfortunately, by applying this remedial measure to Exchange, customers are exposed to attacks and potential security issues. This is a new problem that once again arises from the change of year, something that happens recurrently and almost every year.
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