October 25, TechWeb News - Attackers gearing up to exploit Windows Messenger security hole.

From: David H. Lipman (DLipman~nospam~_at_Verizon.Net)
Date: 10/28/03 

Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2003 09:00:10 -0500

October 25, TechWeb News - Attackers gearing up to exploit Windows Messenger
security hole. An exploit code that takes advantage of a critical vulnerability in
Microsoft's
Windows Messenger Service is out in the wild and could prove as dangerous as this summer's
MSBlaster worm if attackers decide to focus their efforts, security analysts said Friday,
October
24. Released early last week, the exploit code ?? which has been crafted to run not only on
attackers' Windows machines, but also on Linux and Unix boxes ?? crashes Windows
systems not patched against the vulnerability released October 15 in Microsoft Security
Bulletin MS03?043. What concerns security analysts is the speed with which this exploit was
produced. The span between the disclosure of the vulnerability by Microsoft and proof of
exploit code was just three days. Users can disable Windows Messenger Service by following
the instructions in Microsoft's security bulletin:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03?043.asp

Source: http://www.internetweek.com/security02/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15600402

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