For years, I’ve used a mail filtering gateway to check out e-mail before it’s delivered to our Exchange Server.  This removes the load from the individual workstations and the Exchange server. 

Today, we hit a snag:

Apr 26 15:19:18 cobalt amavis[17681]: (17681-16) Blocked BANNED (.wmf,docProps/thumbnail.wmf), [64.191.130.98] [199.134.141.228] <email.removed-AT-too.bad.spammers> -> <email.removed-AT-too.bad.spammers>, Message-ID: <088D6CF23075604E98428E502FC954EF0786DC43CB@email.removed-AT-too.bad.spammers>, mail_id: 17k-16SEPQYU, Hits: 1.211, size: 157087, 12689 ms

For whatever reason, just today, my filter decided it was time to stop Excel 2007 spreadsheets. From the looks of it, because the e-mail or the attachments to the e-mail contained a “wmf” file.

Unfortunately, I’ve only been able to find one thread about it on the interwebs.  And it’s not helpful, just confirming my problem and asking for help.

So, if anyone else is using Amavis, has this problem and knows how to cure it, please contact me and let me know how to fix it.  Thanks…

UPDATE 1 (4-28-10): I contacted the person who originally created the mailing list thread above.  He, like I, have basically allowed the WMF files through, trusting our virus scanners to catch any culprits.  THANK YOU MICROSOFT!  (NOT)