[ISN] Security UPDATE--Combined Attack Methods--June 30, 2004

From: InfoSec News (isn@private)
Date: Thu Jul 01 2004 - 04:31:39 PDT

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    ====================
    
    1. In Focus: Combined Attack Methods
    
    2. Security News and Features
       - Recent Security Vulnerabilities
       - News: Vulnerable IIS Sites and IE Users Under Attack
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       - News: MasterCard and NameProtect Team to Stop Phishing
    
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    ==== 1. In Focus: Combined Attack Methods ====
       by Mark Joseph Edwards, News Editor, mark at ntsecurity dot net
    
    The June 16 Security UPDATE includes a link to the news story "New IE
    Flaws Might Allow Code Injection," which describes a relatively new
    attack method being used by both intruders and purveyors of suspicious
    or malicious software to infest systems that use Microsoft Internet
    Explorer (IE). Jelmer Kuperus said that the attack uses Javascript,
    iframes, PHP, and timing techniques to gain access to the trusted
    intranet zone on a user's system. According to Kuperus, the exploit
    also "uses several known vulnerabilities and two previously unknown
    vulnerabilities." One of the vulnerabilities, for which no patch
    exists, involves ActiveX Data Objects (ADO).
       http://www.winnetmag.com/article/articleid/42959/42959.html
    
    Through this attack method that uses multiple vulnerabilities, many
    people's systems (possibly even the systems of some of you readers)
    have become infected with various sorts of software, most of which is
    annoying, if not outright dangerous. For example, nefarious entities
    have installed adware that generates an endless stream of pop-up
    windows on users' systems. That's the lighter side of the problem
    though.
    
    As you can learn by reading the news story "Vulnerable IIS Sites and
    IE Users Under Attack" below, yet another factor was added to the mix
    last week, this time involving Microsoft IIS. Using the IIS
    vulnerability described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011
    (Security Update for Microsoft Windows) on systems that haven't yet
    been updated with a patch that's been available since mid-April,
    intruders can inject Javascript into a server's Web pages. The
    Javascript then uses a technique similar to the one I described above
    to get IE to download Trojan horse software onto an unsuspecting
    user's systems. The Trojan horse program then gathers ("phishes")
    log-on and financial information.
    
    So now instead of intruders having to establish their own Web sites to
    host malicious Javascript code, they're penetrating unpatched IIS
    systems around the Internet that host legitimate Web sites. As Bugtraq
    mailing list moderator David Amhad points out in a June 25 posting,
    these combined vulnerabilities have "no dependence on version or
    memory layout or any other such messy factors, firewalls are totally
    irrelevant and VPNs become basically a free ride in, [and] the browser
    doesn't end up crashing (i.e., the victim remains blissfully unaware
    that they've been owned)." These combined vulnerabilities have the
    potential to become devastating.
       http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/367120/2004-06-25/2004-07-01/0
    
    Some preventive steps are obvious, and some aren't so obvious,
    depending on the user or administrator. Obviously, loading the IIS
    patch MS04-011 on your servers will stop intruders from manipulating
    the servers' Web pages into hosting malicious code. Turning off
    scripting in the IE security zones will also protect users to a
    certain extent. But in countless scenarios, turning scripting off just
    isn't possible. And sometimes scripting is essential to a Web site's
    usability. Many of you probably already know how to improve security
    in IE, but in case you don't, Microsoft has some recommendations that
    you can read at the following URL:
       http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/settings.mspx
    
    One workaround if you can't turn off scripting is to disable ADO
    databases (ADODB) in IE. Drew Copley of eEye Digital Security wrote a
    simple registry script that does this very thing and one that undoes
    the changes. He also wrote an executable program that disables and
    re-enables ADODB. You can download the scripts and executable program
    at the eEye Web site.
       http://www.eeye.com/html/research/alerts/al20040610.html
    
    Another way of protecting IE systems against ADODB attacks is to use
    PivX Solutions' Qwik-Fix, which protects IE against a variety of
    intrusion methods. Recently, the company made available a version of
    Qwik-Fix for enterprise environments. I don't know of any other tool
    that provides the same sort of functionality.
       http://www.pivx.com
    
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    News: Vulnerable IIS Sites and IE Users Under Attack
       A new form of attack is spreading over the Internet. The attack
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       http://www.winnetmag.com/article/articleid/43088/43088.html
    
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    from Smathers, has also been charged. He is accused of sending spam to
    AOL customers and selling the list of AOL screen names to other
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       http://www.winnetmag.com/article/articleid/43070/43070.html
    
    News: MasterCard and NameProtect Team to Stop Phishing
       MasterCard International and NameProtect announced a partnership in
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    phishing scams and illegal credit card use.
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