Microsoft Fixes Y2K-Style Bug That Shut Down Company Email

Redmond tech giant, Microsoft has released a temporary fix for a bug that broke email delivery for on-premises Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019.

The Y2K bug is also called the Year 2000 bug or Millennium Bug, it is a problem in the coding of computerised systems that was projected to create havoc in computers and computer networks around the world at the beginning of the year 2000 (in metric measurements, k stands for 1,000).

Microsoft started 2022 with a flashback to the Y2K bugs by releasing an emergency fix that uses a PowerShell script to pause two services, replacing the older antivirus engine files with newer ones that use a new number sequence and restart operations.

The problem is not an issue with malware scanning or the malware engine and it is not a security-related issue according to the release. But it is related to date check failure with the change of new year.

According to the release, the fix requires manual input and could take a long time to implement for larger companies, but an automatic solution is in development.

“The problem relates to a date check failure with the change of the new year and it not a failure of the AV engine itself. This is not an issue with malware scanning or the malware engine, and it is not a security-related issue. The version checking performed against the signature file is causing the malware engine to crash, resulting in messages being stuck in transport queues,”

“We have now created a solution to address the problem of messages stuck in transport queues on Exchange Server 2016 and Exchange Server 2019 because of a latent date issue in a signature file used by the malware scanning engine within Exchange Server. Customer action is required to implement this solution,” Microsoft stated.