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Identify OWA / ISA architecture from outside - 7.May2009 2:02:50 PM

swbruce21

Posts: 10
Joined: 10.Jan.2008
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I don't have info concerning the Exchange architecture of this site, but I have been hired to guess, by looking from the outside.

If Outlook Web Access for Exchange 2003 presents this address for the OWA login screen (on the internet), does it tell you - with certainty - that port 443 is forwarded directly to an Exchange Server ? or could there be some other system presenting the login screen ? Could this be an ISA server ? or could it be an Exchange Front-End server ?

The address shown below looks the same as when port 443 is forwarded directly to the Exchange server . . but when the ISA answers does it somehow look the same ? Does a Front-End / Back-end Exchange setup look the same ?

https://domain.com/exchweb/bin/auth/owalogon.asp?url=https://domain.com/exchange&reason=0

thanks

< Message edited by swbruce21 -- 7.May2009 3:19:40 PM >

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RE: Identify OWA / ISA architecture from outside - 7.May2009 4:05:14 PM

SteveMoffat

Posts: 1130
Joined: 29.Jun.2001
From: Hamilton, Bermuda
Status: offline

It shows that FBA is being used on ISA or Exchange.

There should be a clue on the logon screen. If it's ISA it should say protected by ISA or similar when the FBA page comes up. Same if it's FBA on Exchange. The logon page will have a clue.

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Thanks
Steve

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RE: Identify OWA / ISA architecture from outside - 7.May2009 6:45:35 PM

Jason Jones

Posts: 4663
Joined: 30.Jul.2002
From: United Kingdom
Status: offline

I think that ISA (both 2k4 and 2k6) uses CookieAuth.dll in the URL string, so I think your URL is probably a direct connection to Exchange FBA without ISA. It is hard to say if this is a front-end server or a back-end server as you don't necessarily need an FE for OWA.

As Steve says, the default logon screen should mention ISA, but it is easy to personalise to remove these elements.

If I was a betting man, I would say that they ARE NOT using ISA but could be using some other "transparent" reverse proxy that does not provide FBA like ISA. However they could have ISA configure to not use FBA, which is silly, but possible...

Cheers

JJ

< Message edited by Jason Jones -- 14.May2009 3:55:18 PM >

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