News

Critical New Flaw Found in IIS 5.0

A critical, newly discovered flaw in Internet Information Services 5.0 could open Windows 2000-based Web servers, and other Windows 2000 systems that were installed with default settings, to a code execution vulnerability.

Microsoft issued a security bulletin about the problem early Tuesday morning. The problem is severe enough that Microsoft pushed the announcement up nearly two days from its usual patch release time, which is Wednesday night.

The problem arises from an unchecked buffer in a component of Microsoft's implementation of the World Wide Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) protocol, a set of extensions to HTTP for editing and file management between computers on the Internet.

"An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending a specially formed HTTP request to a machine running Internet Information Server," Microsoft's security bulletin stated. "The request could cause the server to fail or to execute code of the attacker's choice. The code would run in the security context of the IIS service (which, by default, runs in the LocalSystem context)."

Officials with the SANS Institute suggested the flaw was a prime candidate for a Code Red style attack. They encouraged administrators to clamp down the hole "before the race to complete the 'WebDAV Worm' is completed."

The bulletin includes workarounds and a patch and can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-007.asp.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

Featured

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.

  • Report: Security Initiatives Can't Keep Pace with Cloud, AI Boom

    The increasingly fast adoption of hybrid, multicloud, and AI systems is easily outgrowing existing security measures, according to a recent global survey by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and exposure management firm Tenable.

  • World Map Image

    Microsoft Taps Nebius in $17B AI Infrastructure Deal To Alleviate Cloud Strain

    Microsoft has signed a five-year, $17.4 billion agreement with Amsterdam-based Nebius Group to expand its AI computing capabilities through third-party GPU infrastructure.

  • Microsoft Brings Copilot AI Into Viva Engage

    Microsoft 365 Copilot in Viva Engage is now generally available, extending Copilot's AI-powered assistant capabilities deeper into the Viva platform.