The new year immediately starts with a patch. Microsoft released it for a bug that messes up mail in Exchange Server.
The patch will be released for Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 and should fix a dating issue. In that sense, it is somewhat reminiscent of the Y2K bug, which threatened to mess up a lot of software at the turn of the century because it was not planned to switch from 1999 to 2000.
So in 2022, Microsoft will have a similar problem. “The issue is linked to a failed date check on the transition to the new year,” Microsoft wrote on its Exchange blog. More specifically, the problem seems to be with the malware scanner.
Exchange checks the version, which also contains a year, and since January 1, that variable is larger than what Exchange can read. As a result, the malware scanner crashes, and without a malware scanner, Exchange does not send any emails.
The company is now releasing a script to fix the bug, although Microsoft immediately says that it may take some time and effort to make the necessary adjustments.
