Important Note:
The Remote Wipe functionality of the Exchange ActiveSync Web Admin Tool will
NOT wipe a storage card.
URL:
https:///mobileadmin/
The Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Web Administration Tool enables
administrators to manage the process of remotely erasing lost, stolen, or
otherwise compromised mobile devices.
By using the Exchange Server ActiveSync Web Administration Web tool,
administrators can perform the following actions:
• View a list of all devices that are being used by any enterprise
user
• Select/De-select devices to be remotely erased
• View the status of pending remote erase requests for each device
• View a transaction log that indicates which administrators have
issued remote erase commands, in addition to the devices those
commands pertained to
The Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Web Administration Tool is designed
for use With Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 and compatible mobile devices.
Remote Wipe Details
Remote Wipe is a new feature in E2K3 SP2 that will enable the Exchange
admins to force a device to delete its contents remotely. This can come in
very handy when an end user loses their device or if the device is stolen
and there is a risk that someone could access personal or confidential data.
There are a number of other policy/security related features in E2K3 SP2 to
help mitigate this risk. For example, an Exchange admin can also enforce the
user to use a PIN, can enforce a length for the PIN, can enforce whether the
PIN is numeric or alphanumeric, and can enforce a specific PIN timeout. This
coupled with the local wipe capability -- which removes all data from the
device when someone enters an incorrect PIN x number of times provides good
risk mitigation when a device is lost of stolen. But, remote wipe is
intended to provide an additional layer of security on top of all this.
Once the setup is run, a vdir with the name "MobileAdmin" is created and
only Network Service/ASP.NET or administrator have access to it. A directory
called "Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Administration" is also created under
Program Files.
Remote Wipe UI
To view the website SSL is required. This might require a cert to be issued.
If that is the case, it will be issued automatically. To view the webpage
type:
https:///MobileAdmin
To give a user permission to access this page you can either go to IIS
Manager. Right click on MobileAdmin vdir and click on Permissions and add
the user you want to give permissions to.
Alternatively, you can go to \Program Files. Right click on
"Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Administration". Select Sharing and Security
and go to Security Tab and add the user here.
Internal Process of A Remote Wipe Initiation
A remote wipe is requested by setting the "wipeinitiated" property on the
mailbox of the user to a non-zero time value. By "the mailbox", I really
mean the folder where we store sync related stuff. For a user of "salman",
a device type of "smartphone", and a device id of "testdevice", that folder
would be:
/exchange/salman/NON_IPM_SUBTREE/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync/smartphone/testdevice
We can issue a PROPPATCH to set this property.
PROPPATCH /exchange//NON_IPM_SUBTREE/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync/
Host:
Brief: t
Accept-Language: en
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: 406
Connection: Keep-Alive
2005-03-22T00:00:30.078Z
The specific time isn't important -- the only thing that matters is that it
is non-zero when mapped to a FILETIME, where zero means something like
January 1, 1601.
What Happens at Protocol layer
At protocol level, the server determines the admin has scheduled the device
for remote wipe and sends back HTTP 449 in response. The device then
provisions and acknowledges receipt of the remote wipe and subsequently
executes the Remote Wipe command.
When the admin schedules the device for remote wipe, and the user issues
a provision command, it sends down a Remote Wipe element indicating that
the recipient is to initiate the remote wipe sequence.
In the 2nd phase or Acknowledgement part of provision command, an
acknowledgement is provided that the remote Wipe directive has been received.
Upon receiving the remote Wipe from the server via Provision response, the
client issues an acknowledgement indicating its success or failure in
receiving it. The status of remote wipe should only indicate success if
device processed command correctly and intends to execute a wipe of local
contents.
Download
Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Web Administration Tool
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?
FamilyID=e6851d23-d145-4dbf-a2cc-e0b4c6301453