RE: Windows Messenger Pop-up spam

[Steven Trewick <STrewick () joplings co uk>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: H Carvey [mailto:keydet89 () yahoo com]
> Sent: 03 December 2004 12:10
> To: security-basics () securityfocus com
> Subject: Re: Windows Messenger Pop-up spam
>
>
> In-Reply-To: <20041202173019.B10318 () planetcobalt net>
>
> > > Which will merely have lulled them into a false sense of security,
> > > since the traffic is still making it to their IP stack. For windows
> > > boxen, this is almost as good as "game over"
> >
> > You may want to give at least one reason for this opinion.
>
> I, too, would like to see something to support this statement.  
>
> "Game over", how?  Sure, the traffic still makes it to the IP 
> stack, I agree...but how does this result in "game over" with 
> respect to Messenger spam?  Turn the Messenger service off 
> and there's nothing there to handle the input...end of story. 
>  *That's* "game over".  

Harlan, as you well know, there are *many* other things listening
to/on the subset of ports used by messenger spam, turning
off the messenger service in no way blinds/deafens the *rest* of 
the RPC subsystem, where $DEITY knows how many vulns have been
(and remain to be) discovered.

Simply turning off the service in no way increases the security 
of the machine, because those ports and the multiplicity of 
services that use them will still be exposed, quite obviously.

Anyone sufficently addled as to run a machine exposed in this 
way is also extremely unlikely to be patched up the eyeballs, 
thus we have exposed *and* vulnerable services.  Thus it will 
be game over when the first worm reaches the machine.

As a rough guide, the last time I saw someone connect a box so 
configured to the internet, it took less than five minutes
to succumb to some variety of lsass exploit, which will
have arrived via those exact same ports (135/9, 445, et al)























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