Re: NT Predictable Initial TCP Sequence numbers - changes

From: Deri Jones (bugtraq-l@NTA-MONITOR.COM)
Date: Thu Aug 26 1999 - 01:58:08 PDT

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    Microsoft have now confirmed the problem:
    -----------------------------------------
    
    From: Sunil Gopal
    To: Roy Hills <Roy.Hills@nta-monitor.com>
    Subject: RE: NT 4.0 SP4 predictable initial TCP sequence numbers
    Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 04:20:56 -0700
    
    Hi Roy,
    
    Sorry about the silence...
    
    Though the TCP sequence generation pattern changes made to TCPIP.SYS for SP4
    are an improvement, I have been informed that this has been resolved in
    Windows 2000 and will be "back ported" to NT 4.0 in a future SP release. The
    issue remains open and is being worked on....
    
    We are trying to get escalate this further and get it into the HOTFIX
    schedule and hope to make it available to xxx ASAP.
    
    Hope this helps...
    
    Thanks and Regards,
    
    Sunil Gopal, MCSE
    Technical Specialist/Systems Engineer
    mailto:sunilgat_private
    
    "Enable people to do anything they want, anytime they want, anywhere they
    want, on any device."
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     -----Original Message-----
    From: 	Roy Hills [mailto:Roy.Hills@nta-monitor.com]
    Sent:	Tuesday, August 24, 1999 12:54 PM
    To:	Sunil Gopal
    Subject:	NT 4.0 SP4 predictable initial TCP sequence numbers
    
    Folks,
    
    I've not heard back from Microsoft yet regarding the new predictable
    initial TCP sequence pattern in NT 4.0 SP4, so I've done some more
    research on the testbench to gain a better understanding of what's going on.
    
    It looks like the differences between initial TCP sequence numbers is always
    between 0 and 14 and is always an even number - i.e. 0,2,4,8,10,12 or 14.
    
    >From a sample of 5,000 initial sequence numbers - i.e. 4,999 difference
    pairs - I get the following distribution:
    
    Sequence	Number
    Difference	of occurrences
    --------------	---------------------
    0		648
    2		584
    4		608
    6		660
    8		602
    10		666
    12		641
    14		590
    
    I've also tested systems at different rates from one connection every
    20ms to one connection per second, and the pattern remains the same.
    So it's not time-related like the old SP3 behaviour.
    
    I'm going to post my finding to a couple of security mailing lists
    to share this information with the security community.  Obviously
    I won't mention any names!  I'll send you a copy of my posting to
    keep you informed of progress.
    
    Regards,
    
    Roy Hills
    NTA Monitor Ltd
    --
    Roy Hills                                    Tel:   +44 1634 721855
    NTA Monitor Ltd                              FAX:   +44 1634 721844
    6 Beaufort Court, Medway City Estate,        Email:
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