Active Directory: one account, two passwords

Lately I noticed something strange. I configured an ISA server as reverse proxy for OWA. The customer demanded the ability for users to change their password through OWA. I configured the OWA listener with LDAPS authentication against the Active Directory and enabled the option to select “I want to change my password after logging on” like shown below.

I tested the environment by logging in and changing the password. Everything looks okay and the password is changed correctly. I tried some extra test. I opened another browser and tried to login with the old password, which succeeded. I could now login with the old and the new password.

Strange to me…..so I tried some more test. The customer is using an SSL portal with RADIUS authentication to the same Active Director. So I tried to log in with the old and new password. I guess you know the answer. It was possible to login with both password. Another test was login in to the network components, which also use RADIUS against the Active Directory. Again the test were positive.

The last test was login in on a workstation. With this test, I could only login in with the new password and not the old one. Strange to me…… After one hour I tried again, and this time it was only possible to login with the new password.

I guess there is some kind of period where you can use both password. Maybe someone noticed this before and knows more about it…

LDAP and eSafe Gateway

eSafe Gateway can be used for scanning incoming and outgoing SMTP connections for virusses and SPAM. Normally eSafe Gateway doesn’t check incoming mail addresses against a directory like Active Directory or Novell Directory Services.

This means that all mail addresses for a trusted domain are forwarded to the internal mail server. In the most ideal situation unknown mail addresses should be blocked at the eSafe Gateway. This feature will take away load from the internal mail server, because this mail server doesn’t have to generate NDR (Non-Delivery Reports) messages. Beside that, the eSafe Gateway also doesn’t have to process the NDR’s. LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) provides this functionality.

With LDAP configured, the eSafe Gateway will synchronize all known mail objects from the directory services with the eSafe Gateway. By this, the eSafe Gateway knows all valid mail objects and can block invalid mail objects. There are some issues when configuring a LDAP query with Active Directory. By default Active Directory only allows 1000 objects in one query. Some customers have more mail object, so this settings needs to be added. Inside Active Directory, you should edit the LDAP Policy setting MaxPageSize. Look here for more information about editing the MaxPageSize variable.

Some organizations use PublicFolders in conjunction with Microsoft. These PublicFolders can be mail-enabled and should be added in the LDAP filter configuration inside eSafe Gateway. This is done by changing the default filter

(&(|(objectClass=person)(objectClass=contact)(objectClass=organizationalPerson))(!(objectClass=computer)))

(&(|(objectClass=person)(objectClass=contact)(objectClass=organizationalPerson)(objectClass=publicFolder))(!(objectClass=computer)))

This results in adding the mail object PublicFolder to the LDAP query.