Step by Step - Guide to Integrating Google reCAPTCHA with Exchange Server

Protecting your Exchange Server from malicious activities is paramount. This post provides a comprehensive guide on bolstering your server's defenses by incorporating Google reCAPTCHA, a widely trusted and effective tool for thwarting automated bots and ensuring secure communication. From understanding the importance of reCAPTCHA to the step-by-step implementation process, you will gain valuable insights into fortifying your Exchange Server against unauthorized access and potential threats. Follow along to enhance your server's security posture and safeguard sensitive information with this practical guide to integrating Google reCAPTCHA.

Jan 5, 2024 - 17:38
Jan 5, 2024 - 17:41
Step by Step - Guide to Integrating Google reCAPTCHA with Exchange Server
Integrating Google reCAPTCHA with Exchange Server

Google reCAPTCHA is a great and widely adopted security measure designed to protect online platforms from automated bots, spam, and other malicious activities. Google reCAPTCHA uses advanced risk analysis algorithms and sophisticated challenges to distinguish between human users and automated scripts. One of its primary components involves presenting users with visual or interactive puzzles that are easy for humans to solve but challenging for bots. This not only adds an additional layer of security to online services but also contributes to the improvement of digitized data, as users unknowingly assist in the training of machine learning models that power reCAPTCHA's capabilities.

The importance of integrating reCAPTCHA into systems, such as Exchange Servers, lies in the critical need to defend against automated attacks that could compromise sensitive information. Bots continuously evolve in sophistication, and without adequate protection, they can exploit vulnerabilities, compromise user accounts, and flood communication channels with spam. By implementing reCAPTCHA, you can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access, secure user authentication processes, and enhance the overall integrity of your system. This proactive approach not only safeguards against potential breaches but also ensures a smoother and more reliable user experience by minimizing the impact of automated threats.

Step 0 - Signing Up for Google reCAPTCHA:

Google ReCAPTCA

Visit this link in order to add your domain and get the SITE and SECRET KEYS for your domain. Follow the registration process and put the required information to form. After completing the form note down the keys to be used in exchange server.

reCAPTCHA (google.com)

Step 1 - Updating Exchange Server Login Configuration - Creating recaptcha.aspx:

Open the following directory in exchange server and create an recaptcha.aspx file in that folder:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\FrontEnd\HttpProxy\owa\auth

Edit recaptcha.aspx file with notepad and add the following text.

<% @ Page AspCompat=True Language = “VB” %> <% Dim strPrivateKey As String = “YOUR_SECRET_KEY_GOES_HERE” Dim strResponse = Request(“response”) Dim objWinHTTP As Object objWinHTTP = Server.CreateObject(“WinHTTP.WinHTTPRequest.5.1”) objWinHTTP.Open(“POST”, “https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify”, False) objWinHTTP.SetRequestHeader(“Content-type”, “application/x-www-form-urlencoded”) Dim strData As String = “secret=” & strPrivateKey & “&response=” & strResponse objWinHTTP.Send(strData) Dim strResponseText = objWinHTTP.ResponseText Response.Write(strResponseText) %>

Step 2 - Updating Exchange Server Login Configuration - Updating Current Logon File:

Create a copy of the current logon.aspx and name it as logon.v0.aspx This file is also in the same directory C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\FrontEnd\HttpProxy\owa\auth

Open logon.aspx with notepad and find

 line. This line basically shows how the form will be handled and how the authentication process will be followed. Now you need to delete /owa/auth.owa and leave this area as

After changing the action of the from find and replace

  with
This div actually define how the button will act after clicking to sign in. Since we have updatied the current funtion name we need to define what to do onclick.

Find

and place the following lines up this div.

YOUR_SITE_KEY_GOES_HERE”>

Save and close the logon.aspx

Step 3 - Restarting IIS and Testing:

Once the configuration is complete, restart iis and perform thorough testing to ensure reCAPTCHA is functioning as expected. Test various scenarios, such as login attempts and form submissions, to verify that the reCAPTCHA challenges are being presented and resolved accurately. 

As you would already recognize, there will be an alert pop-up if users try to sign in without using reCAPTCHA. You may update or remove this alert from logon.aspx file according to your needs. After succesfully integrating reCAPTCHA with exhange server, you are now able to monitor anomalies from reCAPTCHA analytics addition to exchange server logs.

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