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Zero Day

Ryan Naraine, Emil Protalinski and Dancho Danchev

VoIP vulnerabilities in Microsoft Communicator

By | November 17, 2008, 9:06am PST

Summary: Researchers at VoIPshield Labs have pinpointed a wide range of denial-of-service vulnerabilities in Microsoft Communicator, the unified communications that features business-grade instant messaging , voice, and video tools. The flaws, rated “high severity,” could cripple VoIP-powered communications on Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator and Windows Live Messenger. The skinny: Microsoft Communicator Emoticon:  By issuing instant messages to [...]

VOIP Vulnerabilities in Microsoft CommunicatorResearchers at VoIPshield Labs have pinpointed a wide range of denial-of-service vulnerabilities in Microsoft Communicator, the unified communications that features business-grade instant messaging , voice, and video tools.

The flaws, rated “high severity,” could cripple VoIP-powered communications on Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator and Windows Live Messenger.

The skinny:

  • Microsoft Communicator Emoticon:  By issuing instant messages to a client which contain a very large number of emoticons it is possible to cause the Microsoft Communicator to become nonresponsive for a certain period of time. During this period of time the phone does not respond to incoming invite messages and can even be forced to go into an offline state, eventually requiring the phone to reregister.
  • Microsoft Communicator INVITE Flood: Due to the manner in which sessions and authentication are managed it is possible to cause Microsoft Communicator to open a very large number of sessions resulting in the consumption of huge amounts of memory, potentially resulting in a Denial of Service.
  • Microsoft Communicator Real-time Transport Control Protocol Report Block: Using a specially crafted RTCP receiver report packet it is possible cause a Denial of Service (DoS) against Microsoft Communicator, Office Communications Server (OCS) and Windows Live Messenger.

The company said Microsoft has acknowledged the issues.

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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.

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