XCON: MTA May Stop While Processing Malformatted Incoming X.400 Message

ID: Q249153

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server, versions 5.5, 5.5 SP1, 5.5 SP2, 5.5 SP3

SYMPTOMS

The Exchange Server message transfer agent (MTA) may stop while processing an incoming X.400 message. One of the following 9405 error messages may be logged in the Windows NT application event log:

Access violation (0xc0000005) at Address 0x4144dc reading from 0x3032376c. [BASE APPLICATION 28] (16)

Access violation (0xc0000005) at Address 0x77f7cc66 writing to 0x10. [BASE MAIN BASE 28] (16)

Access violation (0xc0000005) at Address 0x401eac reading from 0x30323766. [BASE SUBMIT 15] (16)

Access violation (0xc0000005) at Address 0x77f74767 writing to 0x3032376a. [BASE SUBMIT 15] (16)

Before the event 9405, an event 2245 may be logged:

ds_read failed with Problem DS_E_NO_SUCH_OBJECT.
Attribute: Directory Name:
/O={ASN}1403424D4900/OU={ASN}1412534952454E452D4F5045524154494F4E414C00
/CN={ASN}140A53656B74696F6E2D494900/CN={ASN}140847722E2D49492D4400
/CN={ASN}140A4162742E2D49492D313000/CN={ASN}140C5265662E2D49492D31302D6100
/CN={ASN}14085341542D4F50455200/CN={ASN}140C53415.
[RD Server APPLICATION 27 114] (12)

CAUSE

The Exchange Server MTA receives a malformatted message from a foreign X.400 messaging system. The message in question contains one or more invalid characters in an X.400 P1 directory name, for example "{" or "}". These characters are not part of the T.61 character set which is used here. Also, the directory name field exceeds the maximum allowed length of 64 characters.

RESOLUTION

A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but it has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. If you are not severely affected by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 service pack that contains this fix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Component: MTA

File name	Version
Emsmta.exe	5.5.2651.66
P2.xv2	N/A
P42.tpl	N/A
P772.tpl	N/A
X400om.dll	5.5.2651.66

WORKAROUND

The only workaround is to configure the link to send messages in 1984 format, so the invalid directory names are removed before the message reaches Exchange Server.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5.

MORE INFORMATION

When a malformatted message arrives, the following event is written to the Windows NT application event log:

Event ID 2024
Unable to access the object manager (OM) object from the Microsoft Exchange MTA for MH_T_PER_RECIP_REPORTS.

Additional query words: Dr watson crash hang stop malfunction user.dmp drwtsn32

Keywords : exc55 exc55sp1 exc55sp2 exc55sp3
Version : winnt:5.5,5.5 SP1,5.5 SP2,5.5 SP3
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug