Security Basics mailing list archives

Re: Windows Server 2003


From: Sean Earp <smearp () mac com>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 13:20:16 -0700

Chris-

Well, "secure by default" means that it ships with NOTHING activated. IIS, etc is turned off, and Internet Explorer is virtually unusable out of the box (NO site is trusted, and you have to explicitly trust a site to download, or do just about anything).

Is it more secure out of the box than Windows 2000? Sure. Is it immune to common attack vectors such as Buffer overflows? HECK NO! Windows Server 2003 was fully vulnerable to the exploit that the Blaster worm used, and according to news.com <http://news.com.com/2100-1009_3-5074008.html?tag=fd_top>, two MORE variations of the same security hole were just found, meaning that W2K3 Boxes with the last RPC patch installed are STILL FULLY VULNERABLE TO COMPLETE TAKEOVER by a remote host.

Better than previous attempts?  Yes...   Secure? No.

Just my 2 cents...

-Sean


On Wednesday, September 10, 2003, at 05:37 AM, Chris Halverson wrote:

What does everyone think of the hype around Windows Server 2003 being

secure by default?   Has anyone implemented one in your environment?


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