20 December 2001 Security Advisory

CRITICAL - Microsoft Security Bulletin MS01-059
Date:  Thu, 20 Dec 2001 14:02:59 -0800

Published today:

Microsoft gives this vulnerability a critical security rating.

Security researchers have discovered two new vulnerabilities in Microsoft
Corp.'s Windows XP and ME and some versions of Windows 98, one of which gives
attackers complete control over a vulnerable machine. Both flaws are in the
Universal Plug and Play service, which enables computers to find and use
network-based devices, and affect Windows XP and ME and versions of Windows 98
and 98SE with the Internet Connection Sharing client installed.

This is the first serious remote vulnerability that has been found in XP, and
security experts worry that it could eventually lead to the development of a
self-propagating worm capable of infecting thousand of machines.

The first vulnerability is a buffer overrun. An attacker who successfully
exploited this vulnerability could change the Universal Plug and Play service
(UPnP) to perform any desired task. Because the UPnP service runs as part of the
operating system, this would give the attacker complete control over the system.
This very serious security flaw affects XP machines only.

The second vulnerability is a denial of service attacks vulnerability. It could
be used in either of two ways – it could either be used in an attack that would
involve only a single machine, and would slow or stop its performance, or it
could be used in a distributed denial of service attack, in which the attacker
would direct multiple machines to join forces against a different computer and
swamp it with data. Windows 98, ME and XP are vulnerable.

I strongly urge you to download and install the Operating System patch on your
machine.
The patch is available from the following addresses.
Microsoft Windows 98/98SE:
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=34991

Microsoft Windows ME:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/winme/Update/22940/WinMe/EN-US/314757USAM.EXE

Microsoft Windows XP:
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=34951

Email me back if you are having problems installing the patch.

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Happy and Safe Holidays!

Fredo Martin
Free Information Security Seminar -- details at www.workingarts.com