Denial of Service in Windows Kerberos, PKINIT, and RDP

Kerberos, PKINIT, and Remote Desktop Protocol on Windows are vulnerable to denial of service attacks.

ITPro Today

August 9, 2005

1 Min Read
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Denialof Service in Windows Kerberos, PKINIT, and RDP

ReportedAugust 9, 2005 by Microsoft

VERSIONS AFFECTED

Windows 2000Windows XPWindows Server 2003

DESCRIPTION

The Kerberos subsystemcontains flaws that could allow an intruder to cause a denial ofservice. The flaw is due to the way domain controllers (DCs) processKerberos messages. The related PKINIT protocol contains a design flawthat could allow information disclosure and spoofing, which could letan intruder intercept communication between a client and server.

RDP contains a flawthat could allow an intruder to launch a Denial of Service (DoS)attack against an affected system. Such an attack might cause theserver to stop responding and to automatically reboot itself.

VENDOR RESPONSE

Microsoft releasedSecurity Bulletin MS05-042, "Vulnerabilitiesin Kerberos Could Allow Denial of Service, Information Disclosure,and Spoofing (899587),"and an associated patch to correct the problem with the Kerberos?service.

Microsoft releasedSecurity Bulletin MS05-041, "Vulnerabilityin Remote Desktop Protocol Could Allow Denial of Service (899591),"and an associated patch to correct the problem with RDP.

CREDITS

TonyChin and Geert Jansen of Shell reported the Kerberos vulnerability;Andre Scedrov, Iliano Cervesato, Aaron Jaggard, Joe-Kai Tsay, andChris Walstad reported the PKINIT vulnerability; Tom Ferris ofSecurity Protocols reported the RDP vulnerability.

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