WARNING! SMTP Denial of Service in SLmail ver 3.1

From: Mnemonix (mnemonixat_private)
Date: Tue Sep 22 1998 - 13:24:07 PDT

  • Next message: Seattle Lab Technical Support: "Re: WARNING! SMTP Denial of Service in SLmail ver 3.1"

    Dear All,
    
    The SLMail's smtp service (slsmtp.exe) is susceptible to a denial of
    service attack, whereby a remote attacker can telnet to port 25 and then
    issue any of the following commands, which will set the slsmtp.exe process
    running at 100%.
    
    send (
    vrfy (
    expn (
    mail from: (
    rcpt to: (
    
    slsmtp.exe obviously doesn't like left brackets.
    
    After 30 mins without the high processor usage abating, I had to stop and
    restart the service. While the process was in this state, although I could
    telnet to port 25 and connect, I received no response from the smtp
    service. This attack is more likely to occur than the POP3 DoS due to the
    fact that if the mail server is accessible from the Internet then this can
    be launched by anyone from anywhere.
    
    As to a fix - I still haven't heard anything from Seattlelab about a patch.
    I have
    tried tweaking the registry but can't find a workaround there. Any ideas
    anyone?
    
    
    
    Cheers,
    Mnemonix
    http://www.infowar.co.uk/mnemonix
    http://www.diligence.co.uk
    



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