IIS bug gives attackers complete server control

A hacker has uncovered a previously unknown bug in Microsoft's Internet Information Services webserver that in some cases gives attackers complete control of vulnerable machines. Proof-of-concept code published Monday has been confirmed to give remote root access to servers running version 5 of IIS on Windows 2000 with Service …

[Anonymous Coward]

getsockname function

you'd have thought that after the first Linux positive ID of this 'doesnt check values' function that someone would have thought ' ah, maybe we should check all code that uses such functions and clear up any such messes in one sweep' ? no?

[asdf]

yep openbsd security focus much better

Theo de Raadt style security auditing badly needs to be done on the linux kernel especially when a class of exploit such as this is found in the wild. That said openbsd maybe a lot more secure but in about every other aspect it is a dog compared to linux (lamp performance, etc).

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not the OS...

Windows 2000 is actually a decent OS, it's pretty stable and when properly set up, pretty secure. You just have to avoid running Microsoft applications on it--Office, Outlook, IIS, SQL Server, etc.

netgeek

[Anonymous Coward]

re: its not the OS

avoiding running Office, outlook, iis and SQL Server??

I will give you all of those except SQL Server.. SQL Server has had less vulns over the past 6 years than its closest rivals and I think the total number is less than 10 over the 6 year period, for any software product with that type of market penetration it pretty good news.

[Tom 7]

Pardon?

The vulnerability appears to be triggered only in limited circumstances, specifically when IIS is set to enable the file transfer protocol and there is a writable folder."

So its only likely to happen if you want to be able to do a small amount of off-site management. Like update pages or something equally outrageous...

[Paul Banacks]

Chrome?

"A third vulnerability disclosed Monday affects Google's Chrome browser and could be used in some cases by malicious websites to track web users."

Except its Google so that should probably start off, "A third feature disclosed Monday..."

[Anonymous Coward]

@ It's not the OS...

IIS6 and above is actually on of Microsofts most secure products, take a look at how many vulns there have been since release.

http://secunia.com/advisories/product/1438/?task=advisories

[TC]

Slanted?

Why is the bulk of the article focused on a bug in a product now in extended support? Linux and Google issues are almost a footnote

[Matt Bryant]

RE: It's not the OS...

We bought out a smaller competitior last year and got treated to the pain of integrating their IT operation into ours. Amongst the delights were not only several Win2k servers but we also discovered a whole stack of webeservers running on NT4!!! I'm told it's not the rarity I had thought it to be.

[IndianaJ]

Hmmm

"And according to Nikolaos Rangos, the hacker who released the exploit, IIS6 is also vulnerable.."

This is obviously more interesting... but is it backed up with some proof? Or is the chap trying to big it up somewhat?

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Slanted?

because its a Microsoft product its more popular to bash it. unlike the super secure and bullet proof google and linux. When a bug is found in those products its a case of 'ooh, look how good the engineers are, they found this bug and they fixed it using the power of the community' when its an MS bug then its a case of 'bad bad microsoft, can write code to save their life'