Skip to main content

Breadcrumb auditing in Exchange 2010 with EWS and Powershell

Great strides have been made since Exchange 2007 SP2 with the introduction of more advanced audit levels into Exchange which have again improved in Exchange 2010 and again with 2010 SP1. Auditing however relies on a few things that after the fact of an event you may have wished to audit (or more likely a Superior wanting to know what mailboxes where accessed) . But like footprints in the sand when you walk along the beach many of the actions we do in Outlook do leave marks that the majority of people may not realize. One such mark in the sand that happens in your mailbox when using Outlook 2010 or OWA 2010 is when you access another users folder eg calendar, contacts etc is a wunderbar link gets added to the Common Views Root folder.

What you can do with this little bit of information is deduce what other mailboxes a particular user has been access by enumerating the wunderbar links in the users common view folder. These wunderbar links are FAI (folder associated Items) so live in the FAI collection of that particular folder.

To do this with EWS requires the use of some of the nice new features of EWS in Exchange 2010 such as the ability to access the associated Folder Items collection where these WunderBar Shortcuts are stored.

To access the associated folder Items collection in EWS you just need to change the Traversal type to Associated (note this wont work on 2007).

The Wunderbar Items themselves have a bunch of extended properties that contain information that is important to see what mailbox and folder this users was accessing. A full list of the shortcut properties can be found in the following Exchange protocol document http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc463899%28EXCHG.80%29.aspx. The Ones I've used in this script are

PidTagWlinkEntryId EntryID the ShortCut points to
PidTagWlinkStoreEntryId StoreEntryID the ShortCut points to
PidTagWlinkAddressBookEID Like the above but contains just the users info
PidTagWlinkFolderType Contains the GUID to let you know what type of folder it is
PidTagWlinkGroupName The name of the group

I've put this altogether is a powershell script that use the new EWS 1.1 Managed API beta (which allows you to access the associated folders collection). To use this script you need to customize the the following variable the output of this script is a html report.

$casserverName = "casservername"
$userName = "username"
$password = "password"
$domain = "domain"
$Mailboxname = "user@domain.com"
$fileName = "c:\report.htm"

I've put a download of this script here the script itself looks like.

$casserverName = "casservername"
$userName = "username"
$password = "password"
$domain = "domain"
$Mailboxname = "user@domain.com"
$fileName = "c:\report.htm"

$rptCollection = @()

function ReturnFolderType($guid){
switch($guid){
"0C78060000000000C000000000000046" { return "MailFolder"}
"0278060000000000C000000000000046" { return "Calendar" }
"0178060000000000C000000000000046" { return "Contacts" }
"0378060000000000C000000000000046" { return "Tasks"}
"0478060000000000C000000000000046" { return "Notes"}
"0878060000000000C000000000000046" { return "Journal"}
}

}



## Code From http://poshcode.org/624
## Create a compilation environment
$Provider=New-Object Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider
$Compiler=$Provider.CreateCompiler()
$Params=New-Object System.CodeDom.Compiler.CompilerParameters
$Params.GenerateExecutable=$False
$Params.GenerateInMemory=$True
$Params.IncludeDebugInformation=$False
$Params.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.DLL") | Out-Null

$TASource=@'
namespace Local.ToolkitExtensions.Net.CertificatePolicy{
public class TrustAll : System.Net.ICertificatePolicy {
public TrustAll() {
}
public bool CheckValidationResult(System.Net.ServicePoint sp,
System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509Certificate cert,
System.Net.WebRequest req, int problem) {
return true;
}
}
}
'@
$TAResults=$Provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource($Params,$TASource)
$TAAssembly=$TAResults.CompiledAssembly

## We now create an instance of the TrustAll and attach it to the ServicePointManager
$TrustAll=$TAAssembly.CreateInstance("Local.ToolkitExtensions.Net.CertificatePolicy.TrustAll")
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::CertificatePolicy=$TrustAll

## end code from http://poshcode.org/624

$dllpath = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange\Web Services\1.1\Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.dll"
[void][Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile($dllpath)
$service = New-Object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExchangeService([Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExchangeVersion]::Exchange2010)
$uri=[system.URI] ("https://" + $casserverName + "/ews/exchange.asmx")
$service.Url = $uri
$service.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential($username,$password,$domain)
$rfFolderid = new-object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.FolderId([Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.WellKnownFolderName]::Root,$MailboxName)
$fview = New-Object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.FolderView(1000)
$Sfir = new-object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.SearchFilter+IsEqualTo([Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.FolderSchema]::DisplayName, "Common Views")
$findfldResults = $Service.FindFolders($rfFolderid,$Sfir,$fview)
if ($findfldResults.Folders.Count -eq 1) {
$findfldResults.Folders[0].DisplayName
$PidTagWlinkEntryId = new-object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExtendedPropertyDefinition(26700, [Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.MapiPropertyType]::Binary)
$PidTagWlinkStoreEntryId = new-object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExtendedPropertyDefinition(26702, [Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.MapiPropertyType]::Binary)
$PidTagWlinkAddressBookEID = new-object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExtendedPropertyDefinition(26708, [Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.MapiPropertyType]::Binary)
$PidTagWlinkFolderType = new-object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExtendedPropertyDefinition(26703, [Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.MapiPropertyType]::Binary)
$PidTagWlinkGroupName = new-object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExtendedPropertyDefinition(26705, [Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.MapiPropertyType]::String)
$Propset = new-object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.PropertySet([Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.BasePropertySet]::FirstClassProperties)
$Propset.add($PidTagWlinkEntryId)
$Propset.add($PidTagWlinkStoreEntryId)
$Propset.add($PidTagWlinkAddressBookEID)
$Propset.add($PidTagWlinkFolderType)
$Propset.add($PidTagWlinkGroupName)
$iv = New-Object Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ItemView(10000)
$iv.PropertySet = $Propset
$iv.Traversal = [Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ItemTraversal]::Associated
$fiResults = $findfldResults.Folders[0].FindItems($iv)
foreach($itItem in $fiResults.Items){
$itItem.Subject
$WlinkStoreEntryId = $null
$rptobj = "" | select MailboxName,LinkName,GroupName,FolderType,DateCreated,LastModified
$lnLegDN = ""
if ($itItem.TryGetProperty($PidTagWlinkStoreEntryId,[ref]$WlinkStoreEntryId))
{

$leLegDnStart = 0
for ($ssArraynum = (([byte[]]$WlinkStoreEntryId).Length - 2); $ssArraynum -ne 0; $ssArraynum--)
{
if (([byte[]]$WlinkStoreEntryId)[$ssArraynum] -eq 0)
{
$leLegDnStart = $ssArraynum;
$lnLegDN = [System.Text.ASCIIEncoding]::ASCII.GetString(([byte[]]$WlinkStoreEntryId), $leLegDnStart + 1, (([byte[]]$WlinkStoreEntryId).Length - ($leLegDnStart + 2)));
$ssArraynum = 1;
}
}

}
else{
if ($itItem.TryGetProperty($PidTagWlinkAddressBookEID,[ref]$WlinkStoreEntryId))
{

$leLegDnStart = 0
$lnLegDN = ""
for ($ssArraynum = (([byte[]]$WlinkStoreEntryId).Length - 2); $ssArraynum -ne 0; $ssArraynum--)
{
if (([byte[]]$WlinkStoreEntryId)[$ssArraynum] -eq 0)
{
$leLegDnStart = $ssArraynum;
$lnLegDN = [System.Text.ASCIIEncoding]::ASCII.GetString(([byte[]]$WlinkStoreEntryId), $leLegDnStart + 1, (([byte[]]$WlinkStoreEntryId).Length - ($leLegDnStart + 2)));
$ssArraynum = 1;
}
}
}

}
if($lnLegDN -ne ""){
$ncCol = $service.ResolveName($lnLegDN)
$mbox = ""
foreach ($NameResolution in $ncCol)
{
$mbox = $NameResolution.Mailbox.Address
}
$FolderType = $null
if ($itItem.TryGetProperty($PidTagWlinkFolderType,[ref]$FolderType)){
$hexArr = $FolderType | ForEach-Object { $_.ToString("X2") }
$hexString = $hexArr -join ''
$rptobj.FolderType = ReturnFolderType($hexString)
$hexString

}
$GroupName = $null
if ($itItem.TryGetProperty($PidTagWlinkGroupName,[ref]$GroupName)){
$rptobj.GroupName = $GroupName
}
$rptobj.MailboxName = $mbox
$rptobj.LinkName = $itItem.Subject
$rptobj.DateCreated = $itItem.DateTimeCreated
$rptobj.LastModified = $itItem.LastModifiedTime
$rptCollection += $rptobj}
}
}
$rptCollection
$tableStyle = @"
<style>
BODY{background-color:white;}
TABLE{border-width: 1px;
border-style: solid;
border-color: black;
border-collapse: collapse;
}
TH{border-width: 1px;
padding: 10px;
border-style: solid;
border-color: black;
background-color:#66CCCC
}
TD{border-width: 1px;
padding: 2px;
border-style: solid;
border-color: black;
background-color:white
}
</style>
"@

$body = @"
<p style="font-size:25px;family:calibri;color:#ff9100">
$TableHeader
</p>
"@

$rptCollection | ConvertTo-HTML -head $tableStyle –body $body | Out-file $fileName

Popular posts from this blog

The MailboxConcurrency limit and using Batching in the Microsoft Graph API

If your getting an error such as Application is over its MailboxConcurrency limit while using the Microsoft Graph API this post may help you understand why. Background   The Mailbox  concurrency limit when your using the Graph API is 4 as per https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/throttling#outlook-service-limits . This is evaluated for each app ID and mailbox combination so this means you can have different apps running under the same credentials and the poor behavior of one won't cause the other to be throttled. If you compared that to EWS you could have up to 27 concurrent connections but they are shared across all apps on a first come first served basis. Batching Batching in the Graph API is a way of combining multiple requests into a single HTTP request. Batching in the Exchange Mail API's EWS and MAPI has been around for a long time and its common, for email Apps to process large numbers of smaller items for a variety of reasons.  Batching in the Gr...

Exporting and Uploading Mailbox Items using Exchange Web Services using the new ExportItems and UploadItems operations in Exchange 2010 SP1

Two new EWS Operations ExportItems and UploadItems where introduced in Exchange 2010 SP1 that allowed you to do a number of useful things that where previously not possible using Exchange Web Services. Any object that Exchange stores is basically a collection of properties for example a message object is a collection of Message properties, Recipient properties and Attachment properties with a few meta properties that describe the underlying storage thrown in. Normally when using EWS you can access these properties in a number of a ways eg one example is using the strongly type objects such as emailmessage that presents the underlying properties in an intuitive way that's easy to use. Another way is using Extended Properties to access the underlying properties directly. However previously in EWS there was no method to access every property of a message hence there is no way to export or import an item and maintain full fidelity of every property on that item (you could export the...

EWS-FAI Module for browsing and updating Exchange Folder Associated Items from PowerShell

Folder Associated Items are hidden Items in Exchange Mailbox folders that are commonly used to hold configuration settings for various Mailbox Clients and services that use Mailboxes. Some common examples of FAI's are Categories,OWA Signatures and WorkHours there is some more detailed documentation in the https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc463899(v=exchg.80).aspx protocol document. In EWS these configuration items can be accessed via the UserConfiguration operation https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/dd899439(v=exchg.150).aspx which will give you access to either the RoamingDictionary, XMLStream or BinaryStream data properties that holds the configuration depending on what type of FAI data is being stored. I've written a number of scripts over the years that target particular FAI's (eg this one that reads the workhours  http://gsexdev.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/finding-timezone-being-used-in-mailbox.html is a good example ) but I didn't have a gene...
All sample scripts and source code is provided by for illustrative purposes only. All examples are untested in different environments and therefore, I cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.

All code contained herein is provided to you "AS IS" without any warranties of any kind. The implied warranties of non-infringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are expressly disclaimed.