Reaching into Outlook s Toolbox


Reaching into Outlook’s Toolbox

Apart from the well-known tools discussed earlier, Outlook also has some additional security capabilities; depending on what you’re doing with Outlook, these might or might not be useful to you.

Converting Inbound HTML Mail to Plaintext

The existence of HTML mail is a sore point for many mail users, particularly those who come from a UNIX background. On one hand, HTML mail can contain pretty colors, fonts, images, and so forth. On the other hand, it takes more space to store and transfer, and scripts embedded in HTML mail can do a variety of annoying or even destructive things. Users’ complaints found a sympathetic ear in the Outlook product group, so Outlook 2002 Service Pack 1 and later versions contain a feature that lets you forcibly convert all HTML mail to plaintext. Of course, this strips out all of the useful formatting, but it also renders impotent any scripts in the message, saving you from potential script-borne attacks. If you add a new DWORD value named ReadAsPlain to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Options\Mail key, then give it a value of 1, Outlook converts HTML mail to plaintext, preserving embedded images as attachments. This doesn’t affect signed or encrypted messages, but all other messages are updated as they’re read. You can use this registry key in system policies or Group Policy objects, as described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 307594.

Encrypting RPC Traffic

RPC traffic between Outlook and Exchange Server is already compressed, and it’s mostly unintelligible anyway. However, for added security (particularly for users who are using physically insecure links), you can force Outlook to encrypt RPC packets before they leave your computer. The encryption isn’t as strong as the Windows virtual private network (VPN) software, but you can use RPC encryption on your local area network (LAN) or in conjunction with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server’s (ISA’s) MAPI RPC publishing feature—both situations where VPNs would just get in the way.

This change needs to be made to each individual client, unfortunately, although it’s supported by Outlook 2000 and later versions. To force Outlook to encrypt RPCs to the server, do the following:

  1. Launch Outlook.

  2. Choose the Tools | E-Mail Accounts command. Verify that View Or Change Existing E-Mail Accounts is selected, and then click Next.

  3. Select your Exchange e-mail account, then click Change.

  4. When the Exchange Server Settings dialog box opens, click More Settings.

  5. In the Microsoft Exchange Server dialog box, click the Advanced tab.

  6. Make sure that the When Using The Network check box is set, then click OK to return to the E-Mail Accounts wizard.

  7. Click Next and then click Finish.




Secure Messaging with Microsoft Exchange Server 2000
Secure Messaging with Microsoft Exchange Server 2000
ISBN: 735618763
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 169

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net