Re: XP SP2 nmap incompatibility

From: Nick Johannes (njohannes_at_SHOPNBC.COM)
Date: 08/13/04

  • Next message: Russ: "XP SP2 via BitTorrent"
    Date:         Thu, 12 Aug 2004 21:17:55 -0500
    To: NTBUGTRAQ@LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM
    
    

    From:
    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7bd948d7-b791-4
    0b6-8364-685b84158c78&DisplayLang=en

    http://tinyurl.com/z0rv

    If you don't want to wade through that...

    Detailed description
     
    The TCP/IP stack now limits the number of simultaneous incomplete
    outbound TCP connection attempts. After the limit has been reached,
    subsequent connection attempts are put in a queue and will be resolved
    at a fixed rate. Under normal operation, when applications are
    connecting to available hosts at valid IP addresses, no connection
    rate-limiting will occur. When it does occur, a new event, with ID 4226,
    appears in the system's event log.

    Why is this change important? What threats does it help mitigate?

    This change helps to limit the speed at which malicious programs, such
    as viruses and worms, spread to uninfected computers. Malicious programs
    often attempt to reach uninfected computers by opening simultaneous
    connections to random IP addresses. Most of these random addresses
    result in a failed connection, so a burst of such activity on a computer
    is a signal that it may have been infected by a malicious program.

    What works differently?

    This change may cause certain security tools, such as port scanners, to
    run more slowly.

    How do I resolve these issues?

    Stop the application that is responsible for the failing connection
    attempts.

    Now, there's a tcpip.sys out there that 'fixes' this, but it's not a
    official Microsoft release, so it may or may not be a good idea to
    install such a thing..

    Nick Johannes
    MIS/IT, ShopNBC

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Ian Hayes [mailto:Ian.Hayes@DPSI-INC.COM]
    Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 10:56 AM
    To: NTBUGTRAQ@LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM
    Subject: XP SP2 nmap incompatibility

    Installed XP SP2 yesterday. While the installation was lengthy but
    event-free, I did notice that nmap 3.55 stopped working correctly. I was
    in between scanning subnets here on the network, and installed SP2.
    After that, when I resumed my sweeps, I noticed that nmap was reporting
    that any host I tried scanning had all its ports filtered. I tried
    upgrading the Winpcap driver to the beta one, but that didn't improve
    things. I doublechecked my Windows Firewall settings and verified that
    it was set to OFF.
     
    After removing SP2, I scanned a host with a known configuration and nmap
    correctly identified the open ports and what OS it was running.

    -----
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  • Next message: Russ: "XP SP2 via BitTorrent"

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