11.30.08
Eye on Microsoft: Another Messy Week for Security
The state of the botnet is a reality that can’t be immediately escaped unless there is a large-scale disconnection of Windows-running PCs. However, rather than making steps in the right direction, the situation appears to be worsening.
This post is a quick roundup (due to time constraints) of the past week’s developments, with special emphasis on complete comprise that brings the world SPAM, DDOS attacks, espionage, ransom, and wasted productivity.
Rise of the Zombies
Halloween is far behind, but the zombies are back.
Most of Srizbi’s new command and control servers were located in Estonia and all of its domains were registered in Russia. For about 13 hours, some 100,000 or so infected machines had the ability to connect to those servers, though it’s not clear exactly how many of them did so, since many of them were likely not powered on, Lanstein said.
IDG covered this too.
The zombie computers used to send spam are coming back to life.
Security vendors say spammers are reconnecting with hacked PCs used for sending spam as evidenced by a rising number of spam messages circulating on the Internet the last few days. Spam levels suddenly dropped two weeks ago after the shutdown of McColo, a rogue ISP (Internet Service Provider) based in San Jose, California, whose connectivity was used to control networks of hundreds of thousands of computers to send spam, known as botnets.
According to the following report, these botnets can easily increase their size by recruiting more nodes.
A new analysis of botnets has come up with a possible reason for their prodigious ability to infect PCs — many anti-virus programs are near to useless in blocking the binaries used to spread them.
SPAM on the Rise Again
A recent statistic suggested that over 150 billion SPAM messages are sent per day. Biblical proportions by all means! Some of this can be intercepted at server level, but it increases load on the servers (and thus everyone’s connection fees), not to mention the severe issue of false positives (especially affecting businesses that rely on E-mail).
With increase in botnet activity comes increase in SPAM that threatens small businesses.
The fight against spam rages on after a spike in spam levels following the shut-down of hosting service McColo. SMBs are particularly vulnerable to malware and spam; ensuring secure, spam-free email should be a prominent security interest.
This was also covered by the BBC.
Spam on rise after brief reprieve
Some 450,000 infected computers have been spotted trying to connect to the largest of the networks McColo hosted.
Worms Warming Up
More worm problems emerge:
1. Vulnerable Windows Machines Sitting Ducks for the Conficker Worm
First Microsoft, and now McAfee is warning Windows users to expedite the process of applying a patch for a Critical vulnerability in Server Service affecting both client and server versions of the operating system.
According to the Redmond company, all supported platforms are vulnerable, including Windows 2000, Windows XP (even SP3), Windows Vista RTM/SP1, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7. McAfee has indicated that users not deploying the patch are vulnerable, while Microsoft has already informed that it had detected active attacks and infections in the wild, following a period when exploits were just targeted.
2. Windows worm infection accelerates
Microsoft is currently observing an increase in the spread of a new Windows worm that exploits the known vulnerability in the RPC functions of the Server service to penetrate systems. The infection rate of Conficker.A worm is reported to be accelerating over company networks in particular. The Microsoft Malware Protection Center says most reports are coming from the USA, but customers in Europe, Asia and South America too are affected, and reports have also been received from several hundred home users.
3. Microsoft Warns of Worm Attack on Windows
Security researchers at Microsoft Corp. last week warned of a significant climb in exploits of a Windows bug it patched with an emergency fix last month, confirming earlier reports by Symantec Corp.
Microsoft again urged users to apply the MS08-067 patch if they have not already done so.
4. Microsoft Warns Of Attack Exploiting Windows Vulnerability
Specifically, the worm deletes any use-created System Restore points, and attempts to contact numerous sites, including those of Google, Yahoo, MSN and ask.com, to obtain the current date, according to researchers at the SANS Institute. The worm then uses the date information to generate a list of domain names, which it then contacts in an attempt to download additional malicious files onto a user’s affected computer.
5. Microsoft warns of new Windows attacks
The new attacks, which Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center said began over the weekend but spiked during the past two days, use the same worm that Symantec first spotted last Friday.
6. Microsoft: Worm Exploiting Networked Computers via HTTP
Microsoft informed in its most recent security bulletin that a worm dubbed Win32/Conficker.gen!A is messing around with computers across a network by exploiting a vulnerability in the Windows Server service, allowing remote code execution to take place while file sharing is enabled.
How did computing fall into this mess? Well, the following article magically vanished (we did try to find it again, to no avail), but its headline was (is) “Microsoft Not Rushing To Fix Vista Kernel Vulnerability.” The disappearance of this article might be innocent, but it still raises a brow.
We covered this last week. Even when severe flaws are found, Microsoft will leave them unpatched unless or until there is an attack exploiting them, i.e. when it’s too late. It is not only vain but it’s also irresponsible. It also enables Microsoft to ‘massage’ and lie about security using meaningless figures [1, 2, 3].
Once infected, nothing on a machine can be trusted, as proven by this new report.
A DANGEROUS new variant of malware is attacking PCs in the UK, the INQ has discovered. It hijacks the victim’s browser and directs them to a fake site masquerading as AVG’s own front page.
Needless to say, without radical change, things are bound to get worse before they get better. It’s time for consideration of secure platforms. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
oiaohm said,
November 30, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Problem is a lot deeper. Look at MS so call security systems.
If the core security system of the OS does not work all it takes is a exploit to see the complete OS fail.
Reports have been in for years that the DAC on windows needs work. Even the new MIC from Microsoft is not up to scratch.
advocatus said,
December 1, 2008 at 2:28 am
Missing article’s still in Google cache:
http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:U-koBaBSiNAJ:blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2008/11/microsoft_not_rushing_to_fix_v.php+http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2008/11/microsoft_not_rushing_to_fix_v.php&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1
‘Monday November 24, 2008
Microsoft Not Rushing To Fix Vista Kernel Vulnerability
Categories:
Software Patches, Vulnerabilities, Windows Vista
Tags:
TCP/IP, vista, vulnerabilities, windows xp
A vulnerability in the Windows Vista Kernel hasn’t generated much panic from either researchers or Microsoft several days after its public release.
The vulnerability occurs in adding a route entry to the IPv4 routing table through the CreateIpForwardEntry2 API. It can be exploited through the route command line tool, which is included with Vista. The disclosure claims there are no workarounds. According to this article, Microsoft says that they will fix the bug in the next Vista service pack.
The vulnerability requires that the user be a member of either the Administrator group or the Network Configuration Operators group, and this explains the lack of concern. In Windows XP this would not be much of a barrier for a vulnerability, as so many users run as Administrators, but in Vista this is much less common.
To exploit the vulnerability, the attacker would have to convince the user to execute a malicious program on the PC. This might be as simple as a batch file which ran the route command, or a specially-crafted executable. The vulnerability is a stack overflow in the TCP/IP code, and a successful exploit would give the attacker full control over the PC,
But since the exploit is a buffer overflow, it also has to get past the Vista barriers of DEP and ASLR. As I have discussed recently, these are formidable barriers to invoking an exploit on Vista. The lack of interest in what would be a top-tier vulnerability in XP is yet another sign of how far Vista has gone to block such exploits.’