ie8 fix
madison

Zero Day

Ryan Naraine, Emil Protalinski and Dancho Danchev

Microsoft expecting exploits for critical IE vulnerabilities

By | August 9, 2011, 12:11pm PDT

Summary: Patch Tuesday: Gaping holes in the Internet Explorer browser can be exploited to launch drive-by download attacks from rigged web sites.

Microsoft today warned that multiple gaping security holes in its Internet Explorer browser could expose millions of Web surfers to hacker attacks via rigged web pages.

As part of this months’ Patch Tuesday release, Microsoft shipped a “critical” IE bulletin (MS11-057) with fixes for total of 7 security flaws.   Two of the vulnerabilities were publicly discussed prior to the availability of the patch.

The company expects to see reliable exploits developed within the next 30 days.

Because these vulnerabilities expose IE and Windows users to drive-by download attacks without any user action beyond surfing to a booby-trapped web site, Microsoft is strongly recommending that all Windows users apply the patch immediately.

The IE update is rated “critical”  for Internet Explorer 6 on Windows clients, and for Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, and Internet Explorer 9; and Important for Internet Explorer 6 on Windows servers.

Patch Tuesday heads-up: Critical IE update among 13 bulletins ]

follow Ryan Naraine on twitter

Microsoft also called special attention to MS11-058, a “critical” bulletin that addresses a pair of serious security holes in the Windows DNS Server.

The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker registers a domain, creates an NAPTR DNS resource record, and then sends a specially crafted NAPTR query to the target DNS server. Servers that do not have the DNS role enabled are not at risk, Microsoft explained.

In an attack scenario, the company said that a malicious attacker can send a name resolution request to the victim DNS server that is configured to issue requests to a malicious DNS server.  Because of the vulnerabilities, the response from the malicious DNS server to the  victim DNS server is improperly handled, resulting in a denial-of-service condition on the victim DNS server.

The Windows DNS Server update is rated “critical” for 32-bit and x64-based editions of Windows Server 2008, and x64-based editions of Windows Server 2008 R2; and Important for all supported editions of Windows Server 2003.

The August Patch Batch also fixes these serious problems:

  • MS11-063: An “important” vulnerability in Windows Client/Server Run-time Subsystem that allows privilege escalation if an attacker logs on to an affected system and runs a specially crafted application designed to send a device event message to a higher-integrity process. Microsoft expects to see reliable exploits developed within the next 30 days.
  • MS11-062: A vulnerability in the Remote Access Service NDISTAPI Driver.  This could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to an affected system and runs a specially crafted application designed to exploit the vulnerability and take complete control over the affected system.  Microsoft warns that reliable exploits could be developed within the next 30 days.
  • MS11-064: Provides patches for a pair of vulnerabilities in the TCP/IP stack. The vulnerabilities could allow denial-of-service (blue screen) if an attacker sends a sequence of specially crafted Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) messages to a target system or sends a specially crafted URL request to a server that is serving Web content and has the URL-based Quality of Service (QoS) feature enabled.  Microsoft said there is no exploit possible for code execution.

This month’s patch release also includes fixes for denial-of-service bugs in Remote Desktop Protocol (MS11-065); a pair of code execution holes in Microsoft Visio (MS11-060); a solitary bug in ASP.NET Chart Controls that causes information disclosure (MS11-066); a data exposure flaw in Microsoft Report Viewer (MS11-067); and an elevation of privilege bug in Remote Desktop Web Access (MS11-061).

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Ryan Naraine is a journalist and social media enthusiast specializing in Internet and computer security issues.

Disclosure

Ryan Naraine

The most important disclosure is of my employment with Kaspersky Lab as a member of the global research and analysis team. Kaspersky Lab is a global company specializing in anti-malware and secure content management technologies. I do not own stocks or other investments in any technology company.

Biography

Ryan Naraine

Ryan Naraine is a journalist and social media enthusiast specializing in Internet and computer security issues. He is currently security evangelist at Kaspersky Lab, an anti-malware company with operations around the globe. He is taking a leadership role in developing the company's online community initiative around secure content management technologies.

Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, Ryan was Editor-at-Large/Security at eWEEK, leading the magazine's and Web site's coverage of Internet and computer security issues and managing the popular SecurityWatch blog, covering the daily threats, vulnerabilities and IT security technologies. He also covered IT security, hacker attacks and secure content management topics for Jupiter Media's internetnetnews.com.

Ryan can be reached at naraine SHIFT 2 gmail.com. For daily updates on Ryan's activities, follow him on Twitter.

Related Discussions on TechRepublic

Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?
32
Comments

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: Microsoft expecting exploits for critical IE vulnerabilities
jurlug 18th Aug
@kenift But IE is the best
I have been told over and over Web surfers do not go to rigged web pages.

Thank you Ryan for bring this to my attention.

Hooah!
@daikon Agreed.
I have been told over and over Web surfers do not go to rigged web pages.

Thank you Ryan for bring this to my attention.

Thanking him for what? Common sense?

:0
@ScorpioBlue
Thank Ryan for writing a great article. Its common sense to thank someone if you believe they did a great job.
I have been told over and over Web surfers do not go to rigged web pages.

That's common knowledge. No reason to give thanks.
@daikon

i sure hope that is sarcasm

a "rigged website" can be as "innocent" as a google result or a linked in advertisement segmnent. not something the average user is able to do much about
OMG, this has only been news for 15 years.
@kenift But IE is the best
I would think Microsoft would be able to send auto bot target for specific code holes to collect addresses and make a list to divert them to safe ip zones,, This way they would be by passing those sites it finds on master lists..
Meh. You gotta trick a user into going to a malicious site first which will be pretty hard to do. They aren't going to stray away from their 6 safe sites they do go to. Now that the patches are out it doesn't matter if someone makes an exploit anymore, no one will be able to use it because it been patched. Total non-issue.
@LoverockDavidson Thanks, I needed my daily lulz.

BTW, if you're considering Failbook a "safe" website, you just lost any credibility you would have had in my book. Especially since there's yet another malicious clickjack attack that could possibly install malware on Windows machines.
@Champ_Kind

Loverock never had any credibility to begin with.
@Champ_Kind

Facebook is as secure as you make it.
@LoverockDavidson
Thank you Lovey, it's been a long day and I needed a good laugh. I wish ZDNet had a feature to highlight all your posts so I could find them more easily!

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
@LoverockDavidson
You live in an wonderful little fantasy of yours.
@LoverockDavidson

"you gotta trick the user into going to a malicious site first"

That's not necessarily so. A friend of mine picked up a malware infection by clicking on a picture of a coat on the Burlington Coat Factory Web site. This has been a few years ago, but still...how is the Burlington Coat Factory site a malicious site? You don't have to be "tricked" to go to malicious sites any more. These days malware is all over the Web.
Seeing this kind of report about vulnerabilities in Microsoft products suggests to me that it is time the computing world woke up to the folly of continuing to support a monopolistic single source of computing infrastructure. There are at least half a dozen browser options, and another half dozen operating systems to choose from. While Microsoft provides a single route into nearly everyone's computer, those with malicious intent need only exploit one system. Microsoft continues to charge offensively monopolistic prices that people pay, even in the face a free alternatives. Doesn't make sense to this non-techie.
@namobo
Yeah! Same ole yata, yata, yata! Everyone woke up to you and figured out that your opinion just doesn't matter. But, thank you for playing!!
@namobo

Blah, blah, blah. First of all, this isn't 1996 anymore. The whole "monopoly" attack is old. Second, Microsoft Windows isn't the only OS or piece of software that suffer vulnerabilities.

Thank you for playing.
0 Votes
+ -
Do tell us
honeymonster 9th Aug
@namobo

Which browsers with fewer vulnerabilities could we use?

Which operating systems with fewer vulnerabilities could we use?
@honeymonster

Linux of course.
@honeymonster

"Which browsers with fewer vulnerabilities could we use?"

Why Lynx, of course! happy
@honeymonster
Every other OS does.
@honeymonster
Solaris with Trusted Extensions
@honeymonster

Linux, dood.

I know you don't wanna hear that. We understand. You'd rather die than give it any credit.
@namobo
If Microsoft is being so heavily attacked, it must mean they are over the target. Wishing people would buy another's product is not the same as producing a winning product and successfully marketing. We don't live in a world where you can just command someone to buy a product just because you don't like the competition. Yet.
0 Votes
+ -
And there we have the key word...
jasonp@... 10th Aug
@dhankins16101@...
Marketing. You don't have to make the best anything, you just have to market it better than the competition. This is why the best product almost never wins in the marketplace. Marketing is why VHS dominated BetaMax. Marketing is why we're stuck with two political parties in the US that are almost completely incompetent. Marketing ensured the success of The Blair Witch Project. Marketing gave us Twitter. Marketing gave us The National Enquirer. Marketing gave us mega banks like CitiGroup, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase (responsible for $75 billion in bailout money). Each of these businesses, products and services are either inferior to the competition or just plain worthless. But they have been well marketed.
I feel like a Syrian protester with everyone constantly shooting at me. Whatever happened to civilization?
So that's why MS don't guarantee their laceware is fit for any purpose?
@geum
The whole thing about not offering any guarantee that a piece of software is fit for any particular purpose, is pretty typical among all software vendors. For example, it is present, in one variation or other, in the licensing information accompanying every other major operating system on the planet: Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, etc.

So that statement doesn't really count as an attack against Microsoft specifically.
Google: ActiveX used as hacking tool CNET

And check the date. Seriously, if you still use IE after all this time....
0 Votes
+ -
Opinion;
kristine13 11th Aug
I just paid $22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $675 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, BidsGet.com

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix
Click Here
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix
ie8 fix