[IP] *Another* critical Windows flaw
http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/10/technology/microsoft_flaw.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes
Microsoft warns of new Windows flaw
Software maker says security flaw is similar to one that hackers exploited
to create Blaster worm.
September 10, 2003: 4:01 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. warned computer users Wednesday
about a new critical security hole in its Windows operating system that
could allow an attacker to gain control over a computer, delete data and
install unwanted programs.
The vulnerability is similar to one that Microsoft warned about in July,
which experts called one of the worst to hit a software program in years
because of the broad number of Windows systems affected.
Within a month, the Blaster Internet worm surfaced, taking advantage of
that security hole in Windows. The worm eventually infected an estimated
hundreds of thousands of machines.
Hackers apparently have not yet targeted the newly announced vulnerability,
said Jeff Jones, senior director of Trustworthy Computing security at
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.
But with any critical flaw, "we have a worry that history has shown us
there are malicious individuals out there that could create an attack of
some sort against it," he said.
Blaster, also dubbed MSBlast and LovSan, crashed many of the computers it
infected and tried to launch an unsuccessful attack on a Microsoft software
download Web site.
The operating systems affected by the latest security vulnerabilities are
Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Older
versions of Windows, including Windows Millennium, Windows 98 and Windows
95, are not affected, the company said.
Both the software flaw targeted by the Blaster worm and the new security
hole are related to the Distributed Component Object Model service that is
hosted by a Remote Procedure Call feature in Windows. Those features allow
software applications to work with each other across a computer network.
Instant replay
"It's pretty much like instant replay," said Marc Maiffret, chief hacking
officer at eEye Digital Security, which discovered the latest critical
flaw. "I can't even imagine the frustration level administrators will be
feeling today," he said.
There are critical Windows flaws occasionally, but "never before have we
had another one so soon," he said, adding that he thinks there is a good
chance there will be another worm that will exploit the new flaw.
Since early last year, Microsoft has made software security a top priority
in an attempt to address rising customer concerns about the spread of
viruses and hacker attacks.
Last week Microsoft warned of an important flaw in its Office software that
could enable a malicious programmer to create documents that would launch
attacks on unsuspecting users.
There have been about 40 warnings from Microsoft of security flaws, rated
either critical, important, moderate and low, since the beginning of this
year, according to data posted at the Microsoft security bulletin Web site.
Last year, there were a total of 72 bulletins issued, Jones said.
Jones advised Windows users to get information and download a patch that
fixes the critical vulnerabilities, as well as other less-serious ones the
company discovered. The patch is available from
<http://www.microsoft.com/security>www.microsoft.com/security.
Microsoft is also urging customers to install a firewall to block out
intruders and enable the Windows auto update feature, which allows security
and other software to be updated and installed automatically. The Web site
for that is <http://www.microsoft.com/protect>www.microsoft.com/protect.
Microsoft credited outside researchers for finding the new critical and
non-critical vulnerabilities. Besides eEye Digital Security, it named
NSFOcus Security Team, and Xue Yong Zhi and Renaud Deraison from Tenable
Network Security as
contributors. <http://cnnmoney.printthis.clickability.com/pt/#TOP>
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