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Code Red: the Aftermath
LiquidPC writes: "Microsoft has released a tool to help clean up the effects of the Code Red II. It removes the files and mappings installed by the worm, and reboots your system; it also gives you an option to permanantly disable IIS." So, Microsoft has given you a mop to clean up the mess they made. Start mopping! If you're not the one infected, just tired of seeing your Apache logs fill up, you might see this page.
Blame the bozo who designed strncat!
strncat() isn't a problem by itself. The problem is improper usage patterns.
When you're builiding a string by repeated strncat()s to a buffer, and you don't have guarantees about the size of the things you're concatinating, you need to prevent (or check for) overflow, something like this:
strncat(dest, src, MIN((BUFFSIZE-1)-sizeof(dest), chars_wanted_from_src));
Without such an example in the man page it's easy to forget to guard against buffer overflow. And once code is writing with guards for overflow the guard code will serve as a reminder to later programmers maintaining or upgrading the code.
But strncat() isn't the main culprit.
Most of the buffer overflow attacks come from reading an input using gets(). That bad boy should have had a buffer size argument, ala fgets(). And it's the decision to keep it in the standard library "for compatability" that causes all the pain.
The gnu compiler will warn you if you use it and the man page has a warning, so there's no excuse for it to show up in new code any more. And there's no excuse for not fixing ALL the warnings in a piece of production code, or for using (or writing) a compiler that DOESN'T warn about gets().)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
The rest of us applied the patch supplied by Microsoft more than a month before CR came out...
:)
And were still vulnerable until we disabled URL forwarding.
The Microsoft patch alone is not useful. You are still at risk. See Incidents home page
I'm so sick of people blaming Microsoft. The released a patch well before Code Red. Get over it.
Microsoft STILL hasn't released a patch that makes their webserver secure and allows URL forwarding. Their patch has its own security hole !!
Blame Microsoft, or simply use Internet server software that is secure. All mine is written by Dan Bernstein
This is what happens when you give admins a false sense of security.
After all, they became an MCSE after a couple months of hitting the books, rather than a few years of hacking old hardware. They got a certificate and the sense that the Microsoft way is the best way - If you don't understand what a dialog box is asking, just hit 'Enter' and go with the recommendation. That's how IIS got installed on all of those PCs and this 'Default.ida' nonsense too. I still don't know what a 'default.ida' is used for, and I'm a pretty technical guy. - Something to do with indexing? Whatever.
Some of my friends are MCSEs. - Not all of them are 'hackers' who actually watch what happens in their systems. They trust that MS will send them a shiny new CD with a 'Service Pack', along with a few other goodies to play with when an update is needed.
The problem is compounded by the fact that these Win2K CDs got passed around - Microsoft knows this and whether or not they admit it, it's part of their marketing. From what I've seen, I'd suspect that the bulk of the problems are coming from the home users who are running a borrowed copy of Win2K on their PC/Cable Modem setup. The ones who don't get the service packs and don't log into Microsoft.com too read the bulletins for fear of being asked for proof of purchase.
You Microsoft has these thousands of unlicenced customers that they know are using their software in a dangerous manner - Everything installed, every service running - all the lights on, but nobody home. What is MS's liability?
With all of the talk about the signifigance of an AOL icon vs. an IE icon on the desktop, MS *knows* how people will react when running an install - They know that if the user gets a dialog that says "Activate IIS?" that an unsure user will probably say yes, even if he has no idea what IIS is or what the risks are.
Microsoft has got to accept the blame for this mess - It is their doing.
Unfortunately, this is the first step in the process of requiring people running servers of any kind to be *licenced* - Now won't that be fun?
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
-- My Weblog.
- 2001-08-11 13:18:46 Warhol Worm proposed: 15 minutes to total infection! (articles,bug) (rejected)
SinceHere's the scoop (more meat at K5):
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
This is a bigger fix than one might think. At the university at which I work, the major problem was not the sys admins who did not patch their servers, it was the professors who had Win2K Professional on their workstations with IIS on and didn't even know it. Some of them knew about the worm, even made sure that the department's IT teams patched their servers, but did not know that they were running a web server in their office, let alone that they were infected.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
I got this mail, and the problem is that people are WAY TOO STUPID to know what to do. If the microsoft patch can tell if it needs to do anything or not, RR and @home security should point everybody to it.
From: security@cfl.rr.com
To: Our Valued Customers
Subject: Security Notification
ROAD RUNNER ALERT
VIRUS ALERT. YOUR IMMEDIATE ACTION IS REQUIRED.
Dear Road Runner Subscriber:
Road Runner, like many other ISPs and, indeed, the entire Internet, has
experienced an attack on its network that apparently is attributable to a
strain of the Code Red virus. It is possible that this virus has infected
the PCs of Road Runner customers using the Microsoft Windows NT Server or
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server operating systems. Infected PCs may
continue to flood the Internet and the Road Runner network with
virus-generated messages (even without your being aware of it).
Road Runner is working to alert all of its subscribers to this problem
and to instruct them on where to find and install the patch necessary to
eliminate the virus. In the meantime, Road Runner customers may
experience slow network response, flashing data lights on their cable
modems, and other symptoms (such as unusual port scan log activity or
increased firewall activity) while Road Runner and the Internet community
work to control the impact of this virus.
IF YOUR PC IS RUNNING WINDOWS 2000 SERVER OR WINDOWS NT 4.0 SERVER,
PLEASE IMMEDIATELY DOWNLOAD THE CODE RED PATCH FROM MICROSOFT'S WEBSITE
(www.microsoft.com/security) AND RESTART YOUR PC.
IF YOUR PC IS RUNNING WINDOWS 98, WINDOWS 95, OR WINDOWS ME, OR IF YOUR
ARE A MACINTOSH USER, NO ACTION IS REQUIRED ON YOUR PART.
We ask for your patience while Road Runner continues to work with the
Internet community to address this virus.
Thank you.
Road Runner Security
From: Support@iis.microsoft.com
To: Registered_Users@iis.microsoft.com
CC:
Subject: RE: IIS Code Red Worm Patch
Attachment: Instructions.doc
Body:
Hi, how are you?
We are writing you in response to the Code Red worm that has recently attacked our premium enterprise gold standard web portal system, Microsoft Internet Information Server. We have compiled a set of directions for patching the server, and have included these instructionsin a easy to read Word document. If MS Outlook didn't automagically open this attachment for you, double click on the attachment link above.
If you have any advice on this file, please email us back!
See you later!
When a box has been cracked, you need to do a complete reinstall, as you can never know what backdoors has been installed. Sure, you can remove RCII, but while it was active, it would only take even the dumbest script kiddie a couple of requests to install another backdoor.
Blame the creators of C.
They're the ones who are responsible for buffer overflows.
Trolls throughout history:
Jonathan Swift
"It's the mess left by lazy admins who can't be bothered with security patches a month before a worm comes out to exploit them. Shame on the NT admins."
Does this really surprise anyone? MCSE's are trained (and tested) to solve everything by "reboot, reload, reinstall", because Microsoft's way is to "take the easy way out" instead of actually FIXING the problem.
And, so many MS service packs BREAK servers and software when installed, can you also not blame people for NOT rushing ot install them? Even where I work, where we do OS compatibility testing on servers we don't start using new MS service packs until they've been tested and found safe by our internal test group...
I for one expect use of IIS to drop as a consequence of the Code Red virus... Were IIS open source, these holes and backdoors would have been seen LONG ago and fixed. Apache runs MUCH more of the web than does IIS, yet you don't see anywhere near the number of bugs, exploits and DOS worms as does IIS.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
in /etc/apache/httpd.conf:
.ida
AddHandler cgi-script
There's been talk on places like CNN and CNet about software makers being held liable for serious defects in much the same way Ford and Firestone are for their recent tire troubles. Some good examples where this would apply include some major items in software bugs history: the AT&T 800 service outage, the hospital radiation treatment software controllers that killed people from overexposing them to radiation, and of course Code Red. CNN interviewed Bruce Scheneir (sp?) about this isue and he is all for holding software makers liable. Last week I tried submitting those stories to slashdot, yet the editors dont think it's an issue and won't post it, despite the fact that if liability someday hits the software market, it hits OSS people too.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
As has been so often pointed out, many of Microsoft's fixes also often break things, and they have a nasty habit of occasionally including "improvements" that eventually dead-end you and don't become obvious for some time - like well after it's too late to back out the patch. These features combine to make many admins that I know highly reluctant to install Microsoft's fixes.
/usr/bin, /usr/local/apache/bin, /opt/apache/bin or any one of a number of places; your web pages might be in /home/httpd/html, /var/www/html, /usr/local/apache/html or anywhere the admin chose to put them. It might be running chrooted, it might or might not have zero or more of a great number of modules enabled, and so on;
Apache is more of a monoculture (about twice as much) than IIS, yet Apache worms this bad generally don't happen because:
* Apache is not design-insecure, as is practically every Microsoft product - for example, Exchange's security goolies are still flapping in the breeze (have to be due to fundamental design) and I expect to see another CodeRed appear targeted for it Real Soon Now;
* If you want active facilities, you have to install them - or at least switch them on - because they either don't come with the base server (e.g. PHP) or aren't available in default pages to exploit (e.g. XSSI);
* The active facilities can only touch as much as the webserver can touch. Users named ``apache'' or ``nobody'' generally don't have write access to a great deal of the file system;
* Even though Apache as such is a monoculture, there is great variety between Apaches. They run on a wide variety of CPUs and OSes. Your binaries might be in
* Apache adheres to standards; a lot of IIS holes have been in Microsoft special features;
* Apache's code (including most common add-ons) has been examined by a wide variety of eyes using a wide variety of techniques.
Using Microsoft software costs you all of these advantages and more.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Oh gods, someone PLEASE tell me how I could get a job bashing Microsoft. I do it for free all the time.
And here's a security hole for you. Service Pack 6 (that's the original Service Pack 6, not 6a) not allowing anyone but Administrators to access the TCP/IP stack. You think that possibly some of Microsoft's vaunted legions of crack QA people might've possibly tried testing the service pack as something other than an Administrator?
Just a correction... Apache does *NOT* run MUCH more of the web than does IIS.
You just have to go look at the Netcraft survey's to understand. In the past they've pointed out that half of SSL enabled sites run IIS. Then about a month or two ago they started trying to identify individual machines and found IIS/Windows combination again on half of the overall web.
What we do know is that Apache is used in many more cohosting situations. Jimmy and Susy set up a web page and pay $0-10/month for it. Is it a signifigant thing that companies providing low price service with no service level agreements use a free OS/web server? I don't think so, but you be the judge.
Two other points:
Microsoft fixed the problem before there was a problem. I don't see how Open Source would be any better in this regard.
You should *ALWAYS* test patches and new releases before installing them into a production environment. That applies not only to Microsoft, but also to Linux, Sun, HP, Oracle, Peoplesoft, everything!
In our testing service packs don't usually break apps. But they do have a tendency to break drivers or low-level hardware monitoring tools provided by the manufacturer. Is this surprising? No. Again we have the same problems on our Unix servers with OS patches.
Actually, it might even be good PR for them too.
this is what joe user will think:
A dangerous "virus" threatens the entire internet (*cough*) and then microsoft comes to the rescue with a patch and saves the internet!
08/10/01 I received a total of 132 probes to tcp:80 on my 12.82.x.x dynamic IP via my dialup to worldnet.att.net
These are exclusively from other dialups and small-scale hosts in AT&T's 12.x.x.x class A; AT&T has introduced ingress filtering and I'm seeing almost nothing from outside (Note: almost - some stuff is still leaking through..)
But the problem is the enemy within: there's got to be thousands of home/SOHO small systems, maybe single boxes, put together by the hotshot early-adopters and techno-yuppies who think it's cool to go through the checkout stand at CompUSA and purchase a copy of Win 2K Professional, or whatever, and put it on their home systems with all the bells and whistles installed.
None of these boxes are under *any* formal administrative control, and it's going to be up to each and every one of these thousands of techno-yuppies to patch each and every single one of their boxes.
So far today 08/11/01 at 10:00am I've had 69 probes.
As far as I can see, getting all these systems disinfected and patched hasn't even started yet.
t_t_b
I'm on PJ's "enemies" list! Are you?
well, not really, the IPv6 address space will be largley unused. but the areas that are used will be well known, it would be very easy to specify the good ranges to scan.
-- free as in swatantryam - not soujanyam.