RE: Port scan causing system crashes

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Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 10:16:50 -0400
To: <steve.x.jones@royalmail.com>, <pen-test@securityfocus.com>

Yes. In the thousand or so boxes I've scanned over the last year I've
had three crash. One was an HP9000 box with an unpatched OS that also
had a firmware corruption (that the client knew about and ignored).
This one didn't come back up easily. The second was a Windows 2000
server that had slammer, again, installed right off the CD and unpatched
for 3years. This box crashed on a regular basis anyway and didn't need
much help to fall over. The third was a Nortel Meridan PBX that, like
*EVERY* PBX/VM out there that is built on top of a UNIX, was built in a
completely INSECURE way (sorry, AT&T yours too).

The common thread? The platforms were all incorrectly configured,
unpatched and except for the PBX crashed regularly anyway.

-----Original Message-----
From: steve.x.jones@royalmail.com [mailto:steve.x.jones@royalmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 7:23 AM
To: pen-test@securityfocus.com
Subject: Port scan causing system crashes

Hello

Please can you help? Has any-one else out there had issues with NMAP
port scans (or any other port scanner) causing systems to crash?

I use Nessus to baseline the security of our systems and have twice had
problems caused by the NMAP port scan on clustered unix boxes running
our enterprise applications. NOTE - it was the initial port scan that
caused the problems, not the subsequent vulnerability assessment. I've
done a quick Google search and found confirmation for one of the systems
- BUGTRAQ Vulnerability 3358, "IBM HACMP Port Scan Denial of Service
Vulnerability", the other was a bespoke app running on some HP UX boxes.

Does any-one know of other systems that fall over with a simple port
scan?

Up til now I've been running port scans happily across our subnets to
look for rogue FTP, SMTP, HTTP etc, obviously I'll have to take more
care now...

Thanks in advance for any help.

Steve

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• Previous message: Michael Thumann: "dnsdigger"
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