XFOR: Automatic Replies to SMTP Reports Disallowed

When you apply the AutoReply rules to SMTP reports, it may cause a message volley situation if the Disable auto-replies to the Internet check box is not selected. Non-delivery reports (NDR), Delivery Receipts (DR), Read Receipts (RR), non-Read Notification (NRN), and Out of Office (OOF) messages are the types of reports that may cause the above problem.

When a report is generated for SMTP, the RFC-821 MAIL FROM: field should be <> (null) however the RFC-822 To: line typically contains the postmaster information of the system that generated the report (for example, postmaster@microsoft.com). Exchange Server AutoReply rules would then automatically reply to this postmaster account. If the postmaster account sent back a non-delivery report, this scenario could repeat.

This same situation could occur if the user's AutoReply rule requested a delivery receipt. The delivery receipt could be automatically replied to requesting another delivery receipt. This could cause another message volley situation.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Exchange Server version 5.5. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Component: Information Store

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5. This problem was first corrected in Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 3.

Automatic replies to Internet mail can cause these volley situations because the sender's SMTP address cannot always be verify as valid. Even when the domain name exists, if an auto-reply occurs to an invalid address, the NDR from the other system is almost always a new message, thus bypassing any checking Exchange Server can do to detect the volley.

Further, automatic forwards can cause this situation if the address being forwarded to is invalid. Exchange Server does not prevent auto-forwarding of any messages to the Internet, so the creator of the rule must be careful to verify the address as correct.

For additional information about Exchange Server auto-replies and auto-forwards to the Internet, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: