The Internet Mail Service periodically crashes, and event IDs 4097, 7031, and 7034 may be logged in Exchange Server 5.5 (884874)

SYMPTOMS

On a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 computer that is running the Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service, you may experience the following symptoms:

The Internet Mail Service periodically crashes, and you receive a Dr. Watson error.
The following events may be logged in the Application log:

Event ID: 4097
Event Type: Error
Event Source: DrWatson
Description: The application, MSEXCIMC.exe, generated an application error. The error occurred on date @ time. The exception generated was c0000005 at address 0044BC8E (res_skip_answer). Event ID: 7031
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Description: The Internet Mail Service service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this x time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 0 milliseconds: No action. Event ID: 7034
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Description: The Internet Mail Service service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this x time(s).
After the Internet Mail Service crashes, you can successfully restart it.

CAUSE

This problem occurs if the following conditions are true:

The Internet Mail Service performs an MX record lookup operation for a particular domain.
That particular domain returns a response that is larger than 1500 bytes.

In this scenario, the following behavior occurs:

The DNS query is sent to the remote domain.
The remote domain returns a response that is larger than 1500 bytes.
The receive buffer is set to 1500 bytes, and the first 1500 bytes from the remote domain's response is copied into this buffer.

However, in this scenario, the res_query() function returns the actual length of the response. Because the response is larger than 1500 bytes, the Internet Mail Service crashes.

RESOLUTION

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

Prerequisites

Because of file dependencies, you must be running Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 4 (SP4) to install this hotfix. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

191014 How to obtain the latest Exchange Server 5.5 service pack

Restart requirement

You do not have to restart your computer after you apply this hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix does not replace any other hotfixes.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

   Date          Time    Version       Size      File name
   ----------------------------------------------------------
   07-Dec-2004   23:04   5.5.2658.28   209,680   Imcmsg.dll     
   07-Dec-2004   21:20   5.5.2658.28   505,104   Msexcimc.exe