Users were experiencing malware engine crashes when they made new mail checks and had left emails stuck in a queue. The incident had Microsoft thinking about how this kind of ignorant error could occur when, as users reported, it all came down to simple integer Math.
As reported by several websites, the users discovered that Exchange was attempting version date checks for its antivirus scanning engine when its server crashed due to the incompatibility of the 32-bit integer variable with the newer dates. Incidentally, the dates from January 1, 2022, onward were too large for the previous versions.
Microsoft initiated emergency fixes, using a PowerShell script to pause two services, replacing the now-outdated antivirus engine files with the latest version. This version uses new number sequences to restart the operations. Sources revealed that the fix is being carried out manually presently and could take a longer time to be completed for larger companies. But not to fret, as an automatic solution is in progress.
Experts say that other Exchange clients should be unaffected. They also added that the timing is perfect as the demand for email is generally on a low scale over the holiday weekend, said reports. However, IT experts were doubtful about beginning to update their servers in 2022, and why Microsoft could not predict a date issue with this new software is debatable. This issue demonstrates the need to predict date bugs.
