Customers of Microsoft Exchange Servers and some Honda motor vehicles experienced unusual errors with the turn of the year as software failed to handle the year 2022 when the date rolled over.
Microsoft Exchange Server bug
The FIP-FS anti-spam and anti-malware service has been enabled by default on all Exchange Servers since Exchange 2013 was released. The software stores a value related to the date using a signed int32 variable (with a maximum value of 2,147,483,647) so when the year changed to 2022 the software could not handle the value which it attempted to store as 2201010001.
As a result of the bug, the FIP-FS anti-malware engine crashed preventing the flow of messages within the server which then became stuck in transport queues.
Microsoft have now released an interim fix for on-premise Exchange servers which admins will need to install manually by following the instructions here. The novel solution includes telling the malware engine that the date is now the 33rd of December 2021 until a full patch can be delivered for the Exchange Server software.
Some Honda Cars reverting to 2002
Owners of some Honda vehicles have been reporting that their navigation system and dash clock have reverted to thinking it is the year 2002 since the 1st of January. According to Honda the issue will resolve itself automatically in August 2022 – leading to speculation that the problem is another form of date related counter over run error.
“We were very impressed with the service, I will say, the vulnerability found was one our previous organisation had not picked up, which does make you wonder if anything else was missed.”
Aim Ltd Chief Technology Officer (CTO)