Integrating Exchange server with kafka application for security analysis

Kumar Gaurav 1

When any user from the internet is posting mail to our mail server, ( for example, suppose I own contoso.com and I

am using office.outlook.com to connect to our mailbox).

When mail has been posted to contoso.com, I want to examine the mail before it reaches to end-user i.e. contoso.com.

Suppose I have an application called ContosoExaminerApp. Then my mail flow would be something like

Internet ---> ContosoExaminerApp(it can add some additional information or check for malicious mails) --> contoso.com(mail server/office 365)

As a part of conversation in below forum
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/outlk_webbus-outtop_email/i-want-to-integrate-my-app-to-office-365-exchange/a1826cad-4d03-4ea4-a040-ad240d6447b5

It was mentioned that we might need to have our local mail server, but I have been asked to check in this forum for further help.

Could someone please help me, with below questions :-

How can we integrate our kafka application to exchange server ?
What will be the prerequisite for having such set up ?
Also, can it further be integrated with office365 ?

KyleXu-MSFT 26,211 Reputation points

2022-05-12T01:36:04.83+00:00

@Kumar Gaurav

It was mentioned that we might need to have our local mail server

Where is your mailbox hosted? Is it a personal mailbox (Such as hotmail.com or gmail.com) or hosted on your personal mail server?

Yes, you could use some applications to filter emails for Exchange server. But if your mailbox doesn't host on Exchange server, your application will not be able to filter emails for your mailbox.

For Exchange on-premises, you just need to create a dedicated connector to send and receive emails from your application.

For Exchange online (Office 365), here is an article about it.
Kumar Gaurav 1 Reputation point

2022-05-12T11:41:35.68+00:00

@KyleXu-MSFT

We are using office 365 cloud that hosts all our mailboxes. As per spam filtering third party providers, they are asking to change the MX records to point their cloud. In this case, how can we build a solution using MX records based on mail filtering.

It looks like, we need to write a service that would be receiving all the emails, and forwarding it to outlook 365. My question is, how can we implement such service ?
KyleXu-MSFT 26,211 Reputation points

2022-05-13T09:27:17.64+00:00

If so, you could follow the Scenario 1 in above article.

You need to point MX record to the third-party providers.

Then create connector on the third-party tool to send emails to your Exchange online. (About this one, you could confirm with your third party provider) Exchange online could receive email from the Internet by default.
KyleXu-MSFT 26,211 Reputation points

2022-05-16T06:57:17.507+00:00

Could you receive emails from kafka application now?
Kumar Gaurav 1 Reputation point

2022-05-18T12:59:01.933+00:00

Scenario 1

I have configured my mail server and configured A and MX records for that domain. Suppose mail.something.com, which is not registered with Microsoft or any other mail provider.
For this mail.something.com, i am able to receive mail message in my mail server.

Scenario 2
I have one domain registered with Microsoft and there are users over there. I was trying to redirect it to my mail server by changing A and MX records for that domain. But, i am unable to redirect or receive any mail on that server.

What should we do additional in scenario 2 to get the mail delivered to my mail server which is being hosted on public IP ?
My kafka application will listen to mail server.
KyleXu-MSFT 26,211 Reputation points

2022-05-19T00:05:40.307+00:00

Do you mean that if you verified a domain in Office 365, emails sent to this domain will not through your application? If so, do you configure this one when verify this domain?