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Exchange Receive connector Maximum Hop Count must be 60.

Overview

Finding IDVersionRule IDIA ControlsSeverity
V-221226EX16-ED-000270SV-221226r961155_ruleCCI-001095medium
Description
Email system availability depends in part on best practice strategies for setting tuning configurations. This setting controls the maximum number of hops (email servers traversed) a message may take as it travels to its destination. Part of the original Internet protocol implementation, the hop count limit prevents a message from being passed in a routing loop indefinitely. Messages exceeding the maximum hop count are discarded undelivered. Recent studies indicate that virtually all messages can be delivered in fewer than 60 hops. If the hop count is set too low, messages may expire before they reach their destinations. If set too high, an undeliverable message may cycle between servers, raising the risk of network congestion.
STIGDate
Microsoft Exchange 2016 Edge Transport Server Security Technical Implementation Guide2024-12-06

Related Frameworks

1 mapping across 4 frameworks
SCF0 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 3 hops (2) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

CAP-02Resource Priority
0.50
CAP-03Capacity Planning
0.50
NIST 800-530 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 2 hops (13) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

AC-17(10)Authenticate Remote Commands
1.00
AC-17(9)Disconnect or Disable Access
1.00
AC-3Access Enforcement
1.00
AC-4Information Flow Enforcement
1.00
AU-3Content of Audit Records
1.00
CM-6Configuration Settings
1.00
CM-7Least Functionality
1.00
CM-7(2)Prevent Program Execution
1.00
SC-47Alternate Communications Paths
1.00
SC-5Denial-of-service Protection
1.00

+3 more (top 10 by confidence shown)

CCI1 mapping
CCI-001095
1.00
NIST CSF 2.00 mappings

No source states a mapping between these directly.

Also reachable in 4 hops (1) derived by us, not asserted by any source

Each of these is a route we composed by chaining published mappings. No publisher states a relationship between the two endpoints.

PR.IR-04
0.50

Details

Check Text (C-221226r961155_chk)

Review the Email Domain Security Plan (EDSP). Determine the value for Receive connectors. Open the Exchange Management Shell and enter the following command: Get-ReceiveConnector | Select Name, Identity, MaxHopCount For each receive connector, if the value of "MaxHopCount" is not set to "60", this is a finding. or If the value of "MaxHopCount" is set to a value other than "60" and has signoff and risk acceptance, this is not a finding.

Fix Text (F-22930r411805_fix)

Update the EDSP to reflect the value for Receive connectors. Open the Exchange Management Shell and enter the following command: Set-ReceiveConnector -Identity <'IdentityName'> -MaxHopCount 60 Note: The <IdentityName> value must be in single quotes. or The value as identified by the EDSP that has obtained a signoff with risk acceptance. Repeat the procedure for each receive connector.