manual

5. Core Modules

The core functionalities of BitDefender Security for Exchange are defined by 4 modules:

Antivirus, Antispam, Content Filtering and Attachment Filtering.

5.1. Antivirus

Basically, there are two kinds of antivirus scanning:

● Antivirus scanning at SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) level

● Antivirus scanning at mailbox, or VSAPI (Virus Scanning Application Program), level

Antivirus scanning at SMTP level. BitDefender scans the SMTP mail entering or

leaving the Exchange server for viruses, spyware and other malware. Different scanning

policies can be defined for users and user groups. These policies include sets of rules

specifying the antivirus scanning settings and the actions to be taken on infected

messages depending on the groups the sender and the recipients belong to.

Antivirus scanning at mailbox (VSAPI) level. BitDefender protects the Exchange

server from viruses, spyware and other malware by scanning the messages and the

files in users’ mailboxes and server folders upon clients’ request. The MS Exchange

mail server was designed with a low level interface, VSAPI, intended to offer antivirus

scanning support. This interface also allows scanning messages with multiple recipients

once, before delivery, instead of several times, for each mail recipient separately.

BitDefender deeply integrates with this interface.

The antivirus scanning at VSAPI level can be done through three additional scanning

methods, intended to optimize the overall scanning process: background, proactive

or transport scanning.

● The purpose of background scanning is to scan all messages stored in the Exchange

databases (mailboxes and public folders). When an object having been checked

through background scanning is requested, it will not be scanned again unless a

virus signature update has been performed in the meantime.

Although background scanning is performed at low priority, the process takes up

system resources because databases are re-scanned after each update and updates

are performed often.

Core Modules

BitDefender Security for Exchange