The recursion depth is the number of levels that the Cisco Secure Email Gateway will scan inside an archive file for executables and other file types. If the recursion depth is too low, some executables may not be detected and scanned by the content filter. To allow the appliance to scan for executables inside the archive file and apply the action as per the content filter, you need to configure the recursion depth to a higher value1. Reference = User Guide for AsyncOS 12.0 for Cisco Email Security Appliances - GD (General Deployment) - Configuring File Reputation Filtering and File Analysis [Cisco Secure Email Gateway] - Cisco