Introduction
This document describes how to view the mail logs in order to determine disposition of a message released from quarantine on the Cisco Email Security Appliance (ESA) or Cisco Security Management Appliance (SMA).
When a message is released from quarantine, where is that logged?
On the ESA, when you release a message from the IronPort Spam Quarantine (ISQ), Policy quarantine, or other custom quarantine, that action and associated event is reported in the IronPort Text Mail Logs (mail_logs) file. The log entry is affiliated with the original MID.
The best way to approach tracking this down is to get either the From, To, or Subject of the original message that was quarantined. Next, search for it in the log to see if it was released from quarantine, and then see if the end mail server accepted it or bounced it.
Example, searching the mail logs for sender "spam@test.com":
> grep -i "spam@test.com" mail_logs
Wed Aug 13 12:59:36 2014 Info: MID 1357 ICID 10152 From: <spam@test.com>
Wed Aug 13 12:59:42 2014 Info: MID 1357 SPF: mailfrom identity spam@test.com None
Wed Aug 13 12:59:57 2014 Info: MID 1357 ready 185 bytes from <spam@test.com>
You will want to pay attention to the message ID (MID) and delivery connection ID (DCID).
We can see this particular MID was sent to the spam quarantine from the full mail_logs, or message tracking:
Wed Aug 13 12:59:29 2014 Info: New SMTP ICID 10152 interface Management
(192.168.0.199) address 75.111.22.123 reverse dns host spam.test.com verified yes
Wed Aug 13 12:59:29 2014 Info: ICID 10152 RELAY SG RELAY_SG match 75.111.22.123
SBRS not enabled
Wed Aug 13 12:59:36 2014 Info: Start MID 1357 ICID 10152
Wed Aug 13 12:59:36 2014 Info: MID 1357 ICID 10152 From: <spam@test.com>
Wed Aug 13 12:59:40 2014 Info: MID 1357 ICID 10152 RID 0 To: <end_user@domain.com>
Wed Aug 13 12:59:42 2014 Info: MID 1357 SPF: helo identity postmaster None
Wed Aug 13 12:59:42 2014 Info: MID 1357 SPF: mailfrom identity spam@test.com None
Wed Aug 13 12:59:57 2014 Info: MID 1357 SPF: pra identity None headers None
Wed Aug 13 12:59:57 2014 Info: MID 1357 Message-ID '<9afe3f$1ad@my_esa.domain.com>'
Wed Aug 13 12:59:57 2014 Info: MID 1357 Subject 'This is spam?'
Wed Aug 13 12:59:57 2014 Info: MID 1357 ready 185 bytes from <spam@test.com>
Wed Aug 13 12:59:57 2014 Info: MID 1357 matched all recipients for per-recipient
policy DEFAULT in the outbound table
Wed Aug 13 12:59:58 2014 Info: MID 1357 interim verdict using engine: CASE
spam positive
Wed Aug 13 12:59:58 2014 Info: MID 1357 using engine: CASE spam positive
Wed Aug 13 12:59:58 2014 Info: ISQ: Tagging MID 1357 for quarantine
Wed Aug 13 12:59:58 2014 Info: MID 1357 interim AV verdict using Sophos CLEAN
Wed Aug 13 12:59:58 2014 Info: MID 1357 antivirus negative
Wed Aug 13 12:59:58 2014 Info: MID 1357 Outbreak Filters: verdict negative
Wed Aug 13 12:59:58 2014 Info: MID 1357 DLP no violation
Wed Aug 13 12:59:58 2014 Info: MID 1357 queued for delivery
Wed Aug 13 13:00:02 2014 Info: RPC Delivery start RCID 161 MID 1357 to local IronPort
Spam Quarantine
Wed Aug 13 13:00:08 2014 Info: ISQ: Quarantined MID 1357
Wed Aug 13 13:00:08 2014 Info: RPC Message done RCID 161 MID 1357
Wed Aug 13 13:00:08 2014 Info: Message finished MID 1357 done
Wed Aug 13 13:05:11 2014 Info: ICID 10152 close
Once released, below is an example of what to look for in a message that is released from the ISQ:
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: Start MID 1359 ICID 0 (ISQ Released Message)
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: ISQ: Reinjected MID 1357 as MID 1359
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: MID 1359 ICID 0 From: <spam@test.com>
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: MID 1359 ICID 0 RID 0 To: <end_user@domain.com>
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: MID 1359 Subject '[SPAM] This is spam?'
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: MID 1359 ready 1445 bytes from <spam@test.com>
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: MID 1359 queued for delivery
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: New SMTP DCID 165 interface 192.168.0.199 address
192.168.0.200 port 25
Wed Aug 13 13:02:15 2014 Info: Delivery start DCID 165 MID 1359 to RID [0]
Wed Aug 13 13:02:15 2014 Info: Message done DCID 165 MID 1359 to RID [0]
Wed Aug 13 13:02:15 2014 Info: MID 1359 RID [0] Response '2.0.0 Ok: queued as
33B7380356'
Wed Aug 13 13:02:15 2014 Info: Message finished MID 1359 done
Wed Aug 13 13:02:20 2014 Info: DCID 165 close
In this example, the message is released, and the interface (192.168.0.199) is the listener on the ESA, connecting to (192.168.0.200) as the final delivery end mail server.
When you look at the Spam Quarantine Logs (euq_logs), the release action shows the following:
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: ISQ: Releasing MID [1357] for all
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: ISQ: Delivering released MID 1357 (skipping
work queue)
Wed Aug 13 13:02:14 2014 Info: ISQ: Corpus status: 0
Wed Aug 13 13:02:15 2014 Info: ISQ: Released MID 1357 to end_user@domain.com
Wed Aug 13 13:02:15 2014 Info: ISQ: Deleting MID [1357] for all
Wed Aug 13 13:02:15 2014 Info: ISQ: Deleted MID 1357 for all
Wed Aug 13 13:02:15 2014 Info: ISQ: Cleared 8192 bytes (MIDs 1, for all
recipients) from database. Current bytes=0.
Similarly, if the original message had quarantined to the Policy quarantine, and then been released, you would see similar to this example:
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: MID 1361 released from quarantine "Policy" (manual)
t=29
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: MID 1361 released from all quarantines
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: MID 1361 matched all recipients for per-recipient
policy DEFAULT in the inbound table
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: MID 1361 interim AV verdict using Sophos CLEAN
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: MID 1361 antivirus negative
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: MID 1361 queued for delivery
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: New SMTP DCID 169 interface 192.168.0.199 address
192.168.0.200 port 25
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: Delivery start DCID 169 MID 1361 to RID [0]
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: Message done DCID 169 MID 1361 to RID [0]
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: MID 1361 RID [0] Response '2.0.0 Ok: queued
as C702980356'
Wed Aug 13 13:09:27 2014 Info: Message finished MID 1361 done
Wed Aug 13 13:09:32 2014 Info: DCID 169 close
From the Policy quarantine, the message is released from the Policy quarantine, and the interface (192.168.0.199) is the listener on the ESA, connecting to (192.168.0.200) as the final delivery end mail server.
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