COMMAND
IIS
SYSTEMS AFFECTED
Win NT running IIS
PROBLEM
David Litchfield found following. As most of you may know
getdrvrs.exe in the drive:\inetpub\scripts\tools\ directory is
used to create an ODBC database source on IIS. Let's say a
malicious hacker followed the following url and selected as his
driver Microsoft Access (*.mdb).
http://www.company.com/scripts/tools/getdrvrs.exe
The file he creates does not have the *.mdb file extension. He can
use *.exe and create a file called test.exe in any directory he
wants. Now, assuming he doesn't put a path in, test.exe will be
created in the /scripts directory. The hacker then follows the
following url:
http://www.company.com/scripts/test.exe
IIS will try and run the ".exe" and launch ntvdm.exe and because
test.exe does not stop "executing" neither does the ntvdm process.
If the attacker keeps on refreshing the browser a new VDM is
launched....it does not take long for the server's memory to run
dry of both physical and virtual memory.
SOLUTION
The admin can end these processes no problem from the task manager
but it's still not a great thing having your server run out of
RAM. Use NTFS file permissions to stop access to sensitive
directories and files for the IUSR_<computer-name> account or the
group you have assigned this account to...