Blocking the Outlook Mobile App for iOS and Android

Revision as of 09:03, 14 September 2017 by Jorge de la Cruz (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

Blocking the Outlook Mobile App for iOS and Android

   KB 21518        Last updated on 2017-09-14  




0.00
(0 votes)

In February 2015, Microsoft released the Outlook Mobile app for iOS and Android. Previously, with Acompli, the Outlook Mobile App came with a lot of security issues and some companies expressed concerns about it:

Blocking the Outlook Mobile App with the Proxy service

If you are running Zimbra with the Proxy service, you can block the Outlook Mobile App editing the next commands (these changes will survive a restart of the services, but not an upgrade)

As the zimbra user, you'll edit the following files.

su - zimbra

Edit the HTTP Nginx template:

   vi /opt/zimbra/conf/nginx/templates/nginx.conf.web.http.default.template

And add the next content when the server starts:

   # HTTP Proxy Default Configuration
   #
   server
   {
       if ($http_user_agent ~ (Outlook-iOS-Android) ) {
       return 403;
       }
   [...]

Edit the HTTPS Nginx template:

   vi /opt/zimbra/conf/nginx/templates/nginx.conf.web.https.default.template

And add the next content when the server starts:

   # HTTPS Proxy Default Configuration
   #
   server
   {
       if ($http_user_agent ~ (Outlook-iOS-Android) ) {
       return 403;
       }
   [...]

Restart the Zimbra services to apply the changes [still as the zimbra user]:

   zmcontrol restart

Log trace

In the nginx log /opt/zimbra/log/nginx.access.log we can see the access attempts with Outlook Mobile App and the 403 errors [Forbidden] :

   54.187.102.116:55301 - zimbra.io\x5Cadmin [11/Feb/2015:10:16:42 -0500]  
  "POST /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync?User=zimbra.io%5Cadmin&DeviceId=215CD17123FC80C2&DeviceType=Outlook&Cmd=Sync 
  HTTP/1.1" 403 310 "-" "Outlook-iOS-Android/1.0" "-"

Note the reference to the IP address of 54.187.102.116, which is the Microsoft Outlook servers, and not from our device ISP provider.

We can also see that Mail.App can continue accession the ZCS server with no issues:

  23.23.23.23:51889 - zimbra.io\x5Cadmin [11/Feb/2015:10:17:29 -0500]  
 "POST /Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync?User=admin&DeviceId=M92PFITKBD0S14XXXXXXXXXXXX&DeviceType=iPad&Cmd=Sync 
 HTTP/1.1" 200 357 "-" "Apple-iPad2C5/1202.466" "127.0.1.1:8443"

Related Bugs/RFE's

Identified Support/Known Issues

Verified Against: Zimbra Collaboration Suite 8.8, 8.7, 8.6 Date Created: 02/11/2015
Article ID: https://wiki.zimbra.com/index.php?title=Blocking_the_Outlook_Mobile_App_for_iOS_and_Android Date Modified: 2017-09-14



Try Zimbra

Try Zimbra Collaboration with a 60-day free trial.
Get it now »

Want to get involved?

You can contribute in the Community, Wiki, Code, or development of Zimlets.
Find out more. »

Looking for a Video?

Visit our YouTube channel to get the latest webinars, technology news, product overviews, and so much more.
Go to the YouTube channel »


Jump to: navigation, search