RE: Another Low Blow From Microsoft: MBSA Failure!

["Joe DeMarco" <demarcoj () comcast net>]

Maybe it's just me but, I wouldn't consider a patch successfully applied
until the machine is rebooted. Registry changes usually require this
process.

-----Original Message-----
From: dotsecure () hushmail com [mailto:dotsecure () hushmail com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 1:21 PM
To: full-disclosure () lists netsys com; bugtraq () securityfocus com;
patchmanagement () listserv patchmanagement org
Subject: Another Low Blow From Microsoft: MBSA Failure!


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Another Low Blow from Microsoft.

Within the last few weeks at our company we have been doing testing to
find out total number of patched machines we have against the latest
Messenger Service Vulnerability. After checking few thousand computers
we have found several hundred were still affected even though patch has
been applied. We have scanned with Retina, Foundstone and Qualys tools
which they all showed as "VULNERABLE", however when we scanned with
Microsoft Base Security Analyzer it showed as "NOT VULNERABLE". This was
at first confusing; one would think an assessment tool released by the
original vendor would actually be accurate. On the flipside it really
didn't make sense to us why would three different commercial scanners
show as vulnerable if they are truly patched. So we decided to do the
ultimate test. We ran messenger service exploit against the machines
that MS Base Analyzer showed as "Not Vulnerable" and 3rd party
vulnerability scanners that showed as "Vulnerable". Results were as
expected, machines were exploited and Microsoft Base Analyzer failed to
detect the vulnerable machines properly.

We have concluded that, although the patch was installed on these
machines,  the patch management script failed to reboot those few
hundred systems,  therefore these machines were vulnerable until the
next successful reboot. After a successful reboot all 3rd party tools
showed the machines as not vulnerable and the exploit tool did not
successfully exploit the machines.  3rd Party tool assessments were
accurate the machines were truly vulnerable prior reboot.

Had we trusted Microsoft Base Analyzer we would still be vulnerable.


To prove this, I have captured screen shots and converted them in pdf
format for your viewing pleasure. The screenshots shows exact same scan
conducted with  Foundstone tool and MBSA.

Screenshots: http://www.elusiveworld.com/scanshots.pdf


I would love to see if there are any more like us out there who
encountered this problem. If you had similar problems our recommendation
to you do not fully depend on MBSA, since the tool is just as buggy as
the company itself.

Questions comments email me at dotsecure () hushamail com
or Aim: Evilkind.


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