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The Distributed Transaction Controller provides a method for disparate processes to complete atomic transactions. The Transaction Internet Protocol (TIP) is one the ways that the DTC service can be accessed. This service is part of a standard installation on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003.
Remote exploitation of a denial of service vulnerability within various versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system allows attackers to flood systems with connection attempts from legitimate MSDTC servers. |
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Credit:
The information has been provided by iDEFENSE Labs Security Advisories.
The original article can be found at: http://www.idefense.com/application/poi/display?id=319&type=vulnerabilities
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Vulnerable Systems:
* Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4
The vulnerability specifically exists because of the functionality in the TIP protocol that allows a remote IP address and port number to be specified for a connection. The attack can be performed by connecting to the MSDTC server and providing an identifier that contains the IP address and port number to flood. After a specific sequence of commands, the attacker can force an error and cause the DTC service to connect to the target IP and port. The DTC service will continue to make connections to that host and port, one at a time, per stalled transaction.
If the target host and port provides anything other than a certain set of response messages to the IDENTIFY request on the connection, the DTC service will disconnect and then reconnect to the service. The attacker can keep submitting new transactions to the DTC service, increasing the total number of connections made to the target.
Analysis:
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to proxy a denial of service attack through a MSDTC server that they do not otherwise have access to. An attacker could easily scan public IP ranges and find servers with TIP enabled and then force them to flood a target with repeated connections attempts.
This attack can also be used to cause a DoS on the MSDTC server itself by specifying a loopback address with port 445. This service should not be exposed to public networks, thus mitigating the risk of this vulnerability.
Vendor response:
The vendor security advisory and appropriate patches are available at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS05-051.mspx
CVE Information:
CAN-2005-1980
Disclosure Timeline:
03/23/2005 Initial vendor notification
03/23/2005 Initial vendor response
10/11/2005 Coordinated public disclosure
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