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Microsoft warns of new server vulnerability

Ina Fried CNET News | May 19, 2009 5:29 AM PDT

Summary

Microsoft said it is looking into "public reports of a possible vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS).
A new, unpatched vulnerability exists in one of Microsoft's server products, the company warned late on Monday.

In a technical bulletin, the company said it is looking into "public reports of a possible vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS)."

The company said that a flaw exists in a certain type of web-serving operation.

"An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in the way that the WebDAV extension for IIS handles HTTP requests," Microsoft said. "An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by creating a specially crafted anonymous HTTP request to gain access to a location that typically requires authentication."

Microsoft said it is not aware of attacks using the vulnerability. The company said it may provide an update as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday or, depending on the severity, could provide a fix outside its monthly patching schedule.

In the meantime, the company listed on its website certain configuration settings that can help mitigate the impact of the flaw.

This article was originally posted on CNET News.

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Where is the infamous Loverock????
Parassassin 20th May 2009
=/
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Oh gawd, say it isn't so.
Intellihence Updated - 19th May 2009
There is no way in the world I believe this c.r.a.p.

Microsoft is the bestest software developing company in the world. Take for insance it's Intertwined Exploiter. jus kidding

I read this story elsewhere yesterday & Microsoft denied the exploit. Quick turn-a-round on this one.
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....
n0neXn0ne 19th May 2009
Where did the OP mentioned Apache?

^o^

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I agree. I had a web site attempt to
GuidingLight 19th May 2009
download a virus onto my computer. I was surprised that it was Apache based running on Linux.

Cannot they take a lesson from Microsoft and make their software more secure?
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Both Apache and IIS are pretty secure
honeymonster 19th May 2009
Very few actual vulneralities are found in any of the products. I would wager a bet that 99.999% of successful attacks from the latest years were through the application layer or a misconfiguration.
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I agree with you.
GuidingLight Updated - 19th May 2009
My response was to be of Intellihence's post
(Where only Microsoft software has problems, everyone else's is 100 percent perfect) but I pressed the wrong button, replied to Story, not Message.

But that was my point: there is nothing perfect, and many problems will be found with all software over time.
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re: I agree with you.
n0neXn0ne Updated - 19th May 2009
"...(Where only Microsoft software has problems, everyone else's is 100 percent perfect )
...
But that was my point: there is nothing perfect ,..."


You build up a straw man only to knock him down, eh?


^o^

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More info
honeymonster 19th May 2009
IIS7 (distributed with Server 2008) is not affected.

IIS6 (distributed with Server 2003) is not affected in its default configuration. It is only affected if WebDa has been installedand configured.

The vulnerability allows the attacker to bypass security mechanisms and access otherwise protected resources as anonymous user. As this uer by default does not have write access the attacker will not be able to write files on the server, unless the admin has granted rights to anonymous (which would be really stupid).

It is unclear if the attacker can execute e.g. aspx pages or merely read files.

In the first case it could be really bad for a lot of sites, as pages typically do allow users to change something.

In the latter case the attacker may be able to snoop on configuration files. Which may also be bad if he can learn SQL server passwords etc. that way (ASP.NET allows the "connection string" section to be encrypted as a production best practice which would mitigate this).
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Typical MS-like response
MyMac 19th May 2009
Instead of dealing with the issue they ignore the problem while trying to direct criticism onto others.

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.
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typical uninformed moron.....
JoeMama_z 19th May 2009
the only thing Microsoft hasn't done is issue a patch. Which they are developing and TESTING now.

This issue doesn't effect default installations of IIS, and unless anonymous has write access the issue is mute anyway.

try enabling anonymous write access on any internet application and see what happens.

Idiot.
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Unfortunate, but true...
Socratesfoot 19th May 2009
I'd be the first to knock M$ if this was anything important to scorn. But it's just a patch and letting people know is a good thing. If we're going to criticize something from M$, we have to at least sound level headed and impartial.

(Even if they are a bunch of doo-doo heads!)


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Where is the infamous Loverock????
Parassassin 20th May 2009
=/

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