Description of the developer-related e-mail security features in Outlook 2002
This article was previously published under Q290500 On This Page
For a Microsoft Outlook 98 version of this article, see 262700 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/262700/).
For a Microsoft Outlook 2000 version of this article, see 262701 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/262701/).
SUMMARY This article summarizes what developers need to know about
the Outlook 2002 e-mail security features and how those features can affect
custom solutions. Important This article describes security features in Outlook 2002, in Outlook 2002 Service Pack 1, and in Outlook 2002 Service Pack 2. Additional features were added to Outlook 2002 Service Pack 3. For more information about those changes, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 838871 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838871/)
Description of the developer-related security changes in Outlook 2002 Service Pack 3 (S838871)
MORE INFORMATIONOverviewImportant In addition to the information in this article, you should be familiar with the general Outlook 2002 e-mail security features. Information about the Outlook e-mail security features is provided in Help. On the Help menu, click Microsoft Outlook Help. In the contents, click Security and Encryption. For more information about how the security features affect end-users, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:290498 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290498/)
You receive warning messages when you use a third-party add-in or custom solution in Outlook 2002
Important This article describes the default behavior of Outlook 2002 with
regard to various restrictions placed on programming interfaces. If you wish to
avoid these restrictions, administrators can configure client computers so that
they do not contain all of these restrictions. As a developer, you need to be
familiar with the administrative options that are available with these security
features.
For more information
about how to override these restrictions, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
290499 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290499/)
Administrator information about e-mail security features
Outlook 2002 includes the same type of security
features that were previously released as the Microsoft Outlook 98 and
Microsoft Outlook 2000 E-mail Security Updates. These features provide Outlook
with additional levels of protection against malicious e-mail messages but may
adversely affect solutions that you build by using developer features that are
included in Outlook and other messaging technologies or Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs). In some cases, solutions may not function at all; in other
cases, solutions may result in a warning message that interrupts your solution
when you try to run it.The security features change Outlook and general messaging functionality in the following areas:
Outlook object model security featuresAttachmentsAttachments with Level 1, or "unsafe," file extensions are not accessible in the Outlook object model, specifically:
Item.SendWhen you run a program that uses the Outlook object model to call the Send method, you receive a warning message. This warning message tells you that a program is trying to send mail on your behalf and asks if you want to allow the message to be sent. The warning message contains both a Yes and a No button; however, the Yes button is not available until five seconds have passed since the warning message appeared. You can dismiss the warning message immediately if you click No. When you click No, the Send method returns an E_FAIL error in the C or C++ programming languages.Accessing address books and recipientsIf a program tries to reference any type of recipient information by using the Outlook object model, a dialog box is displayed that asks you to confirm access to this information. You can allow access to the Address Book or recipient information for up to ten minutes after you receive the dialog box. This allows features, such as mobile device synchronization, to be completed. If you decide not to allow access to your Address Book or recipient information, you receive the E_FAIL return code for all of these messages in the C or C++ programming languages.You receive the confirmation dialog box when a solution tries to programmatically access the following features of the Outlook object model:
Item.SaveAsWhen you use the SaveAs method to save items to the file system, you receive an "address book" warning message. This includes all types of items whether or not the items have attachments or active content. This change has been made so that someone cannot programmatically save items to a file, and then parse the file to retrieve e-mail addresses.Send CommandBar buttonIt is no longer possible to use the Execute method to programmatically click the Send button on the Outlook toolbar. Although this is not commonly done in Outlook solutions, this change has been made to prevent malicious intent. You receive the E_FAIL return code for all of these messages in the C or C++ programming languages.SendKeysOutlook does not allow access to certain dialog boxes by using the Microsoft Visual Basic or Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications SendKeys command. This prevents malicious programs from automatically dismissing the warning messages and circumventing the new security features.VBScript in unpublished forms no longer runsWhen you create a custom Outlook form, you can choose to directly embed Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) within an item. You may do this if other users cannot access a published form. These types of forms are called "one-off" forms. For more information about one-off forms, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:290657 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290657/)
Description of form definitions and one-off forms in Outlook 2002
When you open one of these items in a version of
Outlook that does not have the Outlook E-mail Security Update applied to it,
Outlook displays a security warning message that asks if you want to enable or
disable the code in the form. In Outlook 2002, the code is disabled, and you
cannot activate it. CDO 1.21s security featuresThe CDO 1.21 object model has been changed to reflect the changes made to the Outlook object model and Simple MAPI. The version number of CDO has been updated to 1.21s to reflect these security features. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:295302 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295302/)
Summary of Collaboration Data Objects (CDO) 1.21s e-mail security features in Outlook 2002
For more information about the CDO object model,
see the following article on the Microsoft Web site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/mapi/html/1cee43ae-d5b9-4043-aa67-b944deeb51b3.asp
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/mapi/html/1cee43ae-d5b9-4043-aa67-b944deeb51b3.asp) Simple MAPI security featuresWhen Outlook is installed on a computer as the default Simple MAPI client, Outlook processes requests that are made by using Simple MAPI calls. Therefore, when you install Outlook 2002, Simple MAPI calls are handled by Outlook and those calls provide the same level of protection as the Outlook object model. By default, if you use many Simple MAPI functions, you receive a warning message that says a program is trying to either access recipient information or send mail on your behalf.The following list describes how Outlook responds to Simple MAPI calls. Simple MAPI call Behavior if handled by Outlook ---------------------------------------------------------------- MAPIAddress OK MAPIDeleteMail OK MAPIDetails OK MAPIFindNext OK MAPIFreeBuffer OK MAPILogoff OK MAPILogon OK MAPIReadMail Prompt MAPIResolveName Prompt MAPISaveMail OK MAPISendDocuments OK MAPISendMail OK with the MAPI_DIALOG argument, otherwise prompt http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/mapi/html/9a99b366-44e6-4665-9308-2eddf57e512c.asp (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/mapi/html/9a99b366-44e6-4665-9308-2eddf57e512c.asp) Office applications are reset to high securityTo help protect against harmful macro viruses that may be in Microsoft Office documents, Office XP defaults to putting programs in "high security" mode. This includes all Office XP programs that support Visual Basic for Applications, except Microsoft Access, because Microsoft Access has no equivalent settings for macro security. As a result, all Access document types are included in the list of unsafe file extensions that cannot be accessed.Outlook and HTML mailThe following information is an excerpt from the Microsoft Outlook Help:
To protect against viruses that might be contained in HTML messages you receive, scripts won't run and ActiveX controls will be deactivated regardless of your security zone setting. By default, the Microsoft Outlook security zone is set to Restricted Site.
Avoiding the security featuresThe e-mail security features affect all custom solutions that use the Outlook object model, CDO, or Simple MAPI, even if they are digitally signed. This includes the following:
You may also want to consider using a different messaging API or library:
REFERENCES
For more information about available resources and answers to
commonly asked questions about Microsoft Outlook
solutions, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
287530 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287530/)
Frequently asked questions about custom forms and Outlook solutions
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