From Exchange Server Chaos to Secure Delivery

Situation

The company’s on premises Microsoft Exchange 2016 server had halted outbound mail for every employee. Users reported “message not sent” errors and the support desk was flooded with tickets.

Task

Diagnose the root cause, resolve the outage, and secure the mail flow against future threats.

Action

• Check Exchange health - Logged into the Exchange Management Shell and ran Get ServerComponentState. All components were in a healthy state except the Transport service. A single component failure can bring down the entire mail flow.

• Inspect transport logs - Reviewed the QueueViewer for any stuck messages, then examined the Event Viewer (Application & System) for SMTP errors (Event ID 2025). Found multiple “SMTP authentication failures” linked to a compromised credentials file. Authentication issues often indicate credential compromise or mis configuration.

• Isolate and patch - Stopped the Transport service, replaced the corrupted smtp.ini file with a backup from a known good server, then restarted the service. Replacing the corrupt configuration restored normal routing.

• Apply security hardening - Enabled TLS only connections, updated the anti spam policy to block all inbound traffic on port 25 unless authenticated, and added an additional firewall rule to restrict SMTP traffic to known IP ranges. Hardening prevents future compromise attempts.

• Validate outbound mail - Sent test emails from multiple user accounts to external domains; monitored delivery reports and ensured DKIM/SPF alignment. Confirms that the fix works end to end.

Result

• Outbound email service was restored within 120 minutes of first noticing the outage.

• No spam or phishing attempts were logged during the incident, thanks to the immediate hardening steps.

• The client now has a documented “Email Outage Playbook” that can be deployed in less than an hour.

Key Takeaway

When Exchange stops sending mail, look for transport service failures and credential compromises first; then secure the channel with TLS and strict firewall rules.