[ISN] iPlanet security flaws unmasked

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Thu Jan 10 2002 - 05:10:57 PST

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    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/23609.html
    
    iPlanet security flaws unmasked
    By John Leyden
    Posted: 09/01/2002 at 17:19 GMT
    
    A pair of vulnerabilities on widely-used Web server software from
    iPlanet has been uncovered.
    
    In the more serious case Netscape Enterprise Server 3.x and iPlanet
    Web Server 4.x, running on the Windows operating system, can be
    subjected to a denial of service attack. Hackers would need only to
    enter a simple browser command in order to cause a vulnerable server
    to crash.
    
    For the technique to work Web publishing needs to be enabled but since
    this is fairly common the problem is quiet serious for those that
    running versions of the affected software on an NT platform. An
    estimated 30 per cent of Netscape and iPlanet Web servers run on NT.
    
    An advisory explaining the steps to take to fix the problem, which
    involves disabling the ?wp-html-rend command, can be found here.  
    [http://knowledgebase.iplanet.com/ikb/kb/articles/7764.html]
    
    The second vulnerability, which affects wider varieties of Netscape
    Enterprise Server and iPlanet Web Server, could allow an attacker to
    make repeated authentication attempts if a server is configured to use
    HTTP basic authentication.
    
    This is not a severe weakness, because other security mechanisms (such
    as using client certificates) should be in place. However it may allow
    attackers to perform brute force password cracking on a site which has
    no authentication pages and, as such, represents an unexpected avenue
    of attack.
    
    This bug affects Netscape Enterprise Server 2.x and 3.x as well as
    iPlanet Web Server 4.x and 6.x on Solaris, AIX, Digital Unix, HP-UX,
    IRIX, SunOS, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Linux.
    
    The vulnerability represents a security configuration and iPlanet has
    produced an advisory detailing the steps admins can take here.
    
    Security firm ProCheckUp, which discovered both bugs, say the bugs
    collectively affect iPlanet Web servers commonly used in e-commerce or
    banking sites. But they are less serious than recent flaws uncovered
    in Microsoft IIS.
    
    "These [iPlanet bugs] are not root level exploits so they are not
    nearly as bad as Microsoft bugs, which have resulted in the exposure
    of credit card details," said Richard Brain, ProCheckUp's technical
    director.
    
    "At worst you could temporarily shut down a Web site with these bugs.
    It's more an annoyance factor than anything," he added. ®
    
    
    
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