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Code Red Worm Spreading, Set To Flood Whitehouse

altek writes: "CNET has an article describing a worm that has taken down over 12,000 MS IIS webservers." Bill Kendrick points to another CNET story, which reports that the worm will "cause every infected computer to flood the Whitehouse.gov address with data starting at 5 p.m. PDT," writing "Time to shut down all those IIS servers before the Internet gets flooded."

Slow Internet service due to all those extra packets of malice may not be the worst effect: As sp1n writes: "It appears that due to the way the worm formats its HTTP request and the semi-random way it seeks out vulnerable systems, it is also causing Cisco 67x DSL routers, widely deployed by Qwest, using firmware prior to 2.4.1, as well as some others, such as 3Com LanModems, to crash -- recoverable only by a power cycle. I have yet to see any news outlet cover the affect this is having on DSL service. Qwest's Interprise networking department confirmed they are receiving reports from all 14 states in their territory. Some routers running pre-2.4.1 firmware are crashing even though the web admin is disabled. This has become a huge support nightmare for every ISP in the region."

24 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. Fake worm warning makes ALL OF US flood website! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    It's a conspiracy. Everyone will hit the whitehouse.gov site to see if the alleged worm affected it, and in doing so, we have all been duped into participating in a DDoS attack on the site. Rather clever, actually. Proclaim the effect to create the cause.

  2. Press DOS attack by jonathanclark · · Score: 5

    This is acutally the "Press DOS attack." You get some security expert to claim that a worm is spreading all over the internet and will attack X site at 5pm. Then everyone who reads the story will go see if the site is down at 5pm. And of course since everyone is hitting reload to see when it is down, the site gets flooded and goes down while the virus/worm never exsisted!

  3. So, who's REALLY in charge... by devphil · · Score: 5


    The government cannot take down Microsoft, but Microsoft can take down the government...

    *ponder*

    Right, so, who wants to build a space station with me and leave this BS behind? I'll bring cookies.

    --
    You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
    1. Re:So, who's REALLY in charge... by Guppy06 · · Score: 4

      Seriously though, I hope this convinces the attourney general and the new district judge that Microsoft's monopoly has serious detriments on the internet as well as the industry.

  4. I've had to deal with this all day.. by TheTomcat · · Score: 4

    scared me at first.. reboot fixes it.. but it comes back..
    upgrade your service packs/critical updates and then run this (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default .asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-033.asp) patch.. should clear it up.. I hope, anyway. (-:

  5. Ah HA! by underwhelm · · Score: 4

    So that's why my DSL router was crapping out every 10 minutes or so this afternoon, after several months of continuous uptime. I knew it couldn't be a configuration problem (there's only so much configuratin' one can do to those things.)

    After reading about the trouble Slashdot ran into with their Cisco routers, and the tongue lashing they got for rebooting it without understanding the problem, I'm glad I powercycled it anyway. It did solve the problem, until I got hit again.

    While I was rebooting the "turtle," as we call it, my girlfriend, Anne, for some reason got really upset, started crying and moved out. Really odd.

    --

    I don't need large brains to have a good time.

  6. If you don't run IIS but.... by heliocentric · · Score: 5

    I don't run IIS, but I've been seeing odd things in my logs. It took me a sec to check security focus and learn what it was. Here is an except of a log file so you if see similar you know what's up.

    65.201.146.103 - - [19/Jul/2001:17:58:49 -0400] "GET /default.ida?NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN%u9090%u6858% ucbd3%u7801%u9090%u6858%ucbd3%u7801%u9090%u6858%uc bd3%u7801%u9090%u9090%u8190%u00c3%u0003%u8b00%u531 b%u53ff%u0078%u0000%u00=a HTTP/1.0" 400 323 "-" "-"

    The thing on security focus indicating that "default.ida" thing is IIS probes (and/or possibly already compromised systems rescanning is here.

    --
    Wheeeee
  7. Obligatory reference: by bmo · · Score: 5

    Dick Cheney: SOMEONE SET UP US THE WORM!

    George Bush: MAIN SCREEN TURN ON!

    George Bush: IT'S YOU!!

    Li Peng: YOU HAVE NO CHANCE. MAKE YOUR TIME.

    Li Peng: HAHAHAHAHA

  8. Cisco DSL routers by Eric+Seppanen · · Score: 5
    I, and many of my co-workers, had our home DSL routers (Cisco 675s) lock up today as this worm scanned them.

    There is common belief that disabling the web interface will prevent this. It's not true; mine's been disabled every since this was first reported a year ago and I still got hit. The problem is that "set web disable" prevents the web server from fiddling the router config, but doesn't actually stop the server from parsing input from port 80, which is what locks up the box.

    An improved workaround is to disable the web-admin interface and change its port number with "set web port 53496" (replace with some random port number). At least that'll stop it for the near term.

    Long term you need to get updated firmware, but of course Cisco won't distribute firmware directly to customers, even though they have public announcements of the existence of bugs and bugfixes. To actually get the firmware you have to get it from your DSL line provider (Qwest, in my case), and Qwest couldn't care less about security with respect to home users, so they've never bothered to offer fixed versions of CBOS.
    --

    --
    314-15-9265
    1. Re:Cisco DSL routers by CeramicNuts · · Score: 4
      here's the link to upgrade to the latest firmware:

      http://www.qwest.com/dsl/customerservice/win675ups .html

  9. what it looks like by tedtimmons · · Score: 5
    For those of you that tend flocks of web servers, here's what a request would look like:

    GET /default.ida?NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN ...

    There are tons of N's (can you say buffer overflow?) and then stuff after the N's. I've left that out to make it harder for script kiddies.

    -ted

  10. bashing M$ IS fun... by Raymond+Luxury+Yacht · · Score: 5

    ... but really, what would have been helpful to many IT readers would have been the link to the Microsoft bulletin and patch download in the /. article.

    --

    Ceci n'est pas une sig.
  11. Re:Update! by Smitty825 · · Score: 5

    While I don't disagree with your bug report, I want to point out that at 5PM PST, it offically becomes July 20th on GMT. Unless the attack begins on the 21st, I'm still assuming whitehouse.gov will be inaccessable tonight :-)

    --

    Doh!
  12. Re:Why or why.... by realdpk · · Score: 5

    It's not the RIAA or MPAA, but you might like these IPs:

    207.46.123.13
    207.46.152.122
    207.46.153.9
    207.46.171.237
    207.46.171.61
    207.46.171.68
    207.46.173.25
    207.46.175.96
    207.46.186.252
    207.46.187.123
    207.46.196.55
    207.46.196.58
    207.46.203.39
    207.46.227.38
    207.46.230.64
    207.46.239.116
    207.46.239.117
    207.46.239.44
    207.46.252.139
    207.46.28.158

    Each of them has hit default.ida on one server I'm watching. From what I can tell from whois -a, 207.46 is all Microsoft corp! They can't even keep up with their patches.

    (btw, on this same server I'm seeing a new unique IP default.ida hit every second)

  13. Re:Update! by friscolr · · Score: 4
    one more thing to note-

    it attacks 198.137.240.92 not www.whitehouse.gov
    that is, it doesn't need to reference the dns server (i was hoping to just add an entry for whitehouse.gov to our dns server since i dont have access to the router side of things)

    -f

  14. Why or why.... by Wintermancer · · Score: 5

    ....can't it be the RIAA's and MPAA's webservers?

    Sigh. Windows IIS: It's like walking around with a handfull of twenties and giving a loaded gun to any criminal you meet.

  15. Dealing with this all day by SealBeater · · Score: 4

    We have been dealing with this all day at my job (colo/hosting). Apprently, it's totally memory resident, so a reboot should clear it. However, its really spreading like wildfire. Also will hang Cisco 675s and 678s, so if you have one of those routers (cable/dsl), disable web access. Also is hanging HP printers with web frontends. The traffic alone is choking some of our smaller routers. The patch is availible here.

    SealBeater

    --
    -- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
  16. Update! by Bender_ · · Score: 4

    The information about the whitehouse.gov attack was wrong. (Well - its still up :)) In fact the attack is going to start tommorrow, july 20th.

    Here is the snippet from bugtraq:

    Thanks to Eric from Symantec for tossing us a note about the worm being Date
    based and not Time based.

    We made an error in our last analysis and said the worm would start
    attacking whitehouse.gov based on a certain time. In reality its based on a
    date (the 20th UTC) which is tomorrow.

    If the worm infects your system between the 1st and the 19th it will attempt
    to deface the infected servers web page or try to propogate itself to other
    systems. On the 20th all infected threads will attempt to attack
    www.whitehouse.gov. This seems to continue until the worm is removed from
    the infected system.

    Any new infection that happens between the 20th and 28th will most likely be
    someone "hand infecting" your system as all other worms should be attacking
    whitehouse.gov. If for some reason you are infected between the 20th and the
    28th then the worm will begin attacking whitehouse.gov without trying to
    infect other systems. This attack will continue indefinitly.

    The following are rough numbers, but we felt that it was important to
    illustrate the affects this worm can _possibly_ have.

    The worm has a timeline like this:

    day of the month:
    1-19: infect other hosts using the worm
    20-27: attack whitehouse.gov forever
    28-end of month: eternal sleep

    Presumably, this could restart at any point in a new month again.

    Also, some stats for the attack:

    Each infection has 100 threads
    Each thread is going to send about 100k, a byte at a time, which means you
    have a (40 for ip + 1 for each byte) which means you have 4.1 megs of data
    per thread
    100 threads * 4.1megs = 410 Megabytes
    This will be repeated again every 4.5 hours or so

    Remember, each host can be infected multiple times, meaning that a single
    host can send 410MB * # of infections.

    We have had reports between 15 thousand and 196 thousand unique hosts
    infected with the "Code Red" worm. However, there has been cross infection
    and we have heard reports of at least 300+ thousand infections/instances
    (machines with multiple infections etc..) of this worm.

    If there are 300 thousand infections then that means you have (300,000 * 410
    megabytes) that is going to be attempted to be flooded against
    whitehouse.gov every 4 and a half hours. If this is true and the worm "works
    as advertised" then the fact that whitehouse.gov goes offline is only the
    begining of what _can_ possibly happen...

  17. Re:Good description here: by Bender_ · · Score: 5

    Here is a full analysis of the worm. (including source!)

  18. Re:Write Your Congressman NOW! by BigBlockMopar · · Score: 4

    It's just because Microsoft is the number one webserver that the worm is targetted towards it. If Linux were the number one webserver the worm would target it.

    Hmmm... Uhhh. Microsoft primarily makes operating systems which repeatly prove themselves marginal for desktop use, and criminally inadequate for anything requiring stability or security.

    I think you're attempting to imply that IIS server, which comes free - though hobbled to various degrees - with all versions of NT and 2000, is the number one webserver.

    That's mighty good crack that you're smoking.

    P.S. Drunk driving is not as bad an activity as you describe.

    I love drunk driving. It's a lot of fun. A friend of mine used to work in an automotive wrecking yard, and we used to love cracking open a few beers and driving around the yard in one of the junkers that came in under its own power. It was a great way of spending a Friday evening when I was in high school. I assure you, 50-foot-tall mountains of crushed cars are a lot harder to avoid after 6 beers. Even worse, 50-foot-tall mountains of crushed cars are a lot harder than uncrushed cars. They don't collapse well in accidents after they've been through the Al-jon. One might even suggest that they have less crush space. Especially the silly little Hondas.

    You know what? I love my cars, and I love my beer. But the two don't mix. I don't drive (on public roads, anyway) if I've had even one beer.

    Old people kill more people just because of senility, than drunk drivers.

    Uh-huh. Yeah. You fascinate me.

    --
    Fire and Meat. Yummy.
  19. Apologies to St. Ives.... by Eryq · · Score: 5

    While I was working for the feds,
    I met a worm they called Code Red...
    And Code Red hit 100K hosts,
    And every host had 3 infections
    And every infection had 100 threads
    And every thread sent 100k
    And every k had a thousand bytes [*]
    And every byte was sent in 1 packet
    And every packet had a 40-byte header
    Headers, packets,
    Bytes, k,
    Infections, hosts and threads...
    Once every month, just to piss off the Feds.

    [*] 1024 just doesn't scan well. :-)

    --
    I'm a bloodsucking fiend! Look at my outfit!
  20. Should have open sourced it... by srvivn21 · · Score: 5
    From http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6604515.html
    ...each instance of the worm will attack the same computers in the same order, according to eEye's analysis. Maiffret said that while the addresses of the computers attacked by the worm seem to be random, because the worm uses the same starting point, or "seed," to generate the list, the "random" lists that any two worms generate are identical...
    You know that if this worm had been open sourced, that mistake would have been caught, and this would be an even better epidemic.
  21. Affects IIS? by ryanwright · · Score: 4

    a new Internet worm that takes advantage of a security flaw in Microsoft software

    Is this even worth mentioning? I mean, really! Don't all worms take advantage of security flaws in Microsoft software? Why can't someone write a worm to take advantage of Apache for a change? All of these Microsoft servers being compromised are making me jealous. If only I could afford a license of Win2k Server, then I could participate in the excitement as well...

    some day....

    --
    -Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
  22. WhiteHouse.gov? Thank God! by Purple_Walrus · · Score: 4

    I thought that said whitehouse.com! I got a little worried there for a sec!
    ---

    --
    ------
    Sig