Microsoft IIS security hole persists despite available patch

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/11782.html

By: Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 05/07/2000 at 17:06 GMT

An old and subsequently well-publicised flaw in Microsoft Internet
Information Server (IIS), which allows anyone with a Web browser to
gain admin-level access to a server, continues to plague many sites in
spite of the availability patches to correct it.

The flaw first became news just over a year ago with a flurry of
advisories posted on numerous news sites, and Microsoft did respond
and issue a patch. Wired, for example, ran their coverage on 15 June
of last year.

However, as one of The Register's sharp-eyed readers has discovered
and brought to our attention, putting the word out and issuing a patch
hardly guarantees that anyone will bother to install it.

The hole enables an unauthorised visitor to determine what version of
NT is running, and to see or easily guess file and directory locations
with a mind towards further exploitation of the site. On an e-commerce
site with a shopping cart application running, the flaw can make it
easy to compromise consumers' account details.

Among the more high-profile sites reported to be running the product
in a still-unpatched version are Safeway, IKEA and Tower Records.
Undoubtedly many thousands of less-known sites are as well. The
Register has confirmed the hole in the instances mentioned above, but
for obvious reasons we're not describing the exploit in detail.

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