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Reloading images for certain senders (Microsoft 365)

Updated

SoSafe regularly sends automated emails. These include e-learning invitations, updates on new modules or emails of the phishing simulation. These emails usually contain images. Without automatic image downloads, you might find the emails looking poorly formatted or the content being odd, with placeholders instead of images.

Disclaimer

The contents of this article and instructions have been created with utmost care. However, due to the variety of computer systems and the possibility that the information provided may quickly become outdated (e.g. because of updates), SoSafe SE accepts no liability for the topicality, correctness, or functionality of the content. Likewise, no liability is assumed for damages or consequential damages resulting from the use of the contents provided herein. 

This guide will walk you through the process of allowing image downloads in email messages from specific senders using Exchange PowerShell.

If your organization typically blocks image downloads, you can set up exceptions for certain senders. For instance, you can enable image downloads for emails from noreply@sosafe.de. This ensures that all E-Learning related emails from SoSafe are displayed correctly and are more user-friendly.

For Microsoft 365 users:

It is possible to individually specify safe senders in your junk email settings. However, this can be a bit of a hassle as it requires each person to configure their settings. A more efficient approach is to manage this setting for the entire organization via PowerShell.

Please follow these steps:

The following example shows how to enable image downloading for noreply@sosafe.de.

To enable image downloads also for your simulated phishing emails, add the senders (Header-From) used in your phishing simulation as well.

Find these senders in the SoSafe Manager under Settings / Whitelisting / Envelope sender addresses (technical senders). Use the spoofed value instead of the technical sender.

  1. Navigate to admin.microsoft.com or http://portal.azure.com. Make sure you are logged in as a Global Administator.

  2. Open PowerShell (by selecting the terminal icon in the top right)

  3. Select the security group you want to add the rule for. You can view all security groups by using the command:
    Get-AzADGroup -Filter "securityEnabled eq true"

  4. Save the group as a variable:
    $groupUsers = Get-AzADGroup -DisplayName "YOUR GROUP NAME HERE" | Get-AzADGroupMember

This also works with Entra ID membership groups. However, the script used in step 6 will only affect those included in the group at runtime. For longer campaigns, we recommend automating the script so that it is executed regularly, for instance when new people join your organization.

  1. Use the command:
    Connect-ExchangeOnline

  1. Use the following command:

    foreach ($user in $groupUsers) {
Write-Host "Updating Junk Email settings for: $($User.UserPrincipalName)" -ForegroundColor Cyan
Set-MailboxJunkEmailConfiguration -Identity $User.UserPrincipalName -TrustedSendersAndDomains @{Add="noreply@sosafe.de"} 
#add all senders at the end of the line above, comma-separated, for example @{Add="noreply@sosafe.de","support@sosafe.de","..."}
}

If you want to add more senders, you can comma-separate them: @{Add="noreply@sosafe.de","support@sosafe.de"}

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