Re: IE 5.5 SP2 incident

From: Jose Romeo Vela (jrvelaat_private)
Date: Mon Sep 24 2001 - 08:39:17 PDT

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    I understand that the worm is just sitting there in the cache and as
    long as it does not run it does not become active. 
    
    I should have been more clear on what I was looking for. My concerns
    are the following:
    
    1- Although in the cache, a Trojan is sitting there on the file system.
    I am not comfortable with this idea at all. I see it as a risk.
    
    2- Could a new exploit be developed to run the worm from the cache?
    
    3- It would have been safer to patch IE so that it prompts the user
    before storing (including caching) any file. I really deslike the idea
    that "executables" are being downloaded behind the scenes in IE.
    
    In general I am not satisfied with the patch. I feel that MS needs to
    provide a stronger solution. 
    
    Thanks.
    
    --- Lars Gaarden <larsgat_private> wrote:
    > Jose Romeo Vela wrote:
    > > I came across something that make me think that IE 5.5 SP2 is still
    > > vulnerable to NIMDA.
    > > 
    > > Although, I hardly use IE since I prefer Netscape, I still have IE
    > on
    > > my PC. I updated my IE 5.5 to SP2 to avoid the vulnerability and I
    > > decided to test it. It is my understanding that the patch does not
    > > automatically store files sent by an exploit such as NIMDA's. I
    > look at
    > > my web server logs ( Linux/Apache, It rocks! ) and pick one of the
    > ip
    > > address that are tryin to hit me, I opened Netscape with this URL
    > and I
    > > get esked if I want to save the readme.eml (as expected). I try the
    > > same thing with IE 5.5 SP2 and my Anti-virus goes bananas with
    > > instances of NIMDA in the cache directory.
    > > 
    > > IE 5.5 SP2 never asked me if I wanted to save the file. Appearently
    > MS
    > > in their infinite wisdon, caches the file right away. 
    > 
    > No harm done if IE only caches the object. From my understanding of
    > the SP2 fix, IE doesn't deny the downloading of the .elm embedded in
    > the web page - it only fixes the run files with mimetype wav no
    > questions asked bug.
    > 
    > So, readme.eml is automatically cached - just like any other web
    > page,
    > .gif picture, or any other material you encounter while surfing the
    > web.
    > But, it has not been run automatically. The worm is in your web
    > cache,
    > but it hasn't been run and your PC has not been infected.
    > 
    > -- 
    > LarsG
    > 
    
    
    =====
    Regards.
    Jose Romeo Vela
    
    jrvelaat_private
    
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