SMTP Banner

Hi all. I'm installing a new SMTP gateway for my company. I'm using an IIS 6.0 SMTP server on a Windows 2003 Server std machine to route all incoming/outcoming mail to/from my Exchange Server.

Now all it's working fine but I don't know if it is a good idea follow the steps to remove the SMTP server banner. Of course it can help in case someone is planning to attack the server, but i think that the version banner is used for some operations that won't work if I remove it, right?

The question is, would you remove the banner in my case?

Thank you!

To my knowledge, it's purely informational. I'm not using IIS SMTP, but I changed the banner on my SMTP application to prevent it's disclosure for any malicious purposes.

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Originally posted here by DerekK
The question is, would you remove the banner in my case?

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Without a doubt.

The less iformation that can be gained about your systems/networks and employees the hasrder it becomes to compormise your systems/networks or people.

Your server version may not have any known vunerabilites but you should still remove the banner:

Advertising the SMTP server you use will announce what OS you are running. Announcing a version will allow educated guesses to be made as to how up to date your OS & other apps are likely to be accross all your systems/networks.

And finally should a vunerability come to light for your server/version then you may as well be advertinsing the fact you have a vunerable system.

If you can't get the server & exchange to play nicely together without the banner, I would re-consider the strategy for using exchange. However I would be very suprised if that is the case.

HTH
Steve

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The question is, would you remove the banner in my case?

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Yes, remove it. The last thing you want is to do is give out your information.(banner grabbing) Also, On a side note do you plan on using authentication on this SMTP mail server?

Thank you all.

I had few doubts about if it will work without the default banner but i was checking out several public servers and in all cases they don't show the information.

I'll follow this article .

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Originally posted here by Computernerd22


Yes, remove it. The last thing you want is to do is give out your information.(banner grabbing) Also, On a side note do you plan on using authentication on this SMTP mail server?

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I'm not using authentication because this is and SMTP gateway (pointed by MX), receiving and sending all corporate network. I use SSL SMTP in the front ends for the users who want send email from internet.

One more time, thank you all!