“Year 2022 bug”
How a Microsoft programming error caused worldwide mail failures at the beginning of the year
Might have raised eyebrows for many: At the start of the year there were Microsoft Exchange outages worldwide
© Khosrow Rajab Kordi // Picture Alliance
A comparatively simple programming error caused a worldwide mail failure at the beginning of the year. For many, this should bring back memories of the Y2K bug. To solve this, the past year – at least in the code – was extended a bit.
Do you remember the Millennium bug, also known as the “Y2K bug”? Back then, shortly before the turn of the millennium, there was concern that with the change to the year 2000, in the worst case, the entire technological world would cease to function. The reason: In many older programs, two-digit years were used for memory reasons and it was feared that the systems would switch from 99 to 00 with the new year and then fail. Extensive precautionary measures ensured that ultimately nothing happened.
A current disruption at the turn of the year may have reminded some of the Y2K bug and subsequently made the rounds as the “year 2022 bug” or “Y2K22 bug”. What happened? Exactly at the turn of the year, mail servers running on Microsoft Exchange failed worldwide, and emails were not delivered as a result. Administrators received the following error message: “Can’t Convert ‘2201010001’ to long”.
Microsoft has now admitted the error and wrote that the problem lies in the malware scan engine for checking emails for malware. However, it was referring to a bug in the date check at the turn of the year and not to a bug in the anti-virus engine itself. “It is not a problem with the malware scanning or the malware engine and it is not a security problem. The version check of the signature file leads to a crash of the malware engine, which means that the messages get stuck in the queues, “writes the company. Affected are “only” self-hosted servers with Exchange 2016 and 2019.
Microsoft basically extended the year 2021 a little longer to resolve the issue
The reason is likely to provoke a shake of the head or a smile among experts. Because: The problem goes back to a programming error by Microsoft, as IT expert Joseph Roosen explains on Twitter. Accordingly, an incorrect data type was used with Int32 for the relevant version number of the new signature file at the start of the year. Int32 variables can have a maximum value of 231 and 2,147,483,647 respectively. However, the new value begins with the last two digits of the year 22, followed by the month and day and a four-digit number. This puts it at 2.201.010.001 and thus above the maximum. However, as people with programming expertise say, the developers should have been aware of this.
A first workaround was to turn off the malware engine, which is not recommended for security reasons. Microsoft has now released a new solution. The version number is extended with the preceding year 21 via script. The new version number 2112330001 is dated from December 33, 2021. In terms of calendar, it’s nonsense, the program doesn’t care. The main thing is that it works properly.