COMMAND

    Service Pack 6

SYSTEMS AFFECTED

    WinNT with SP6

PROBLEM

    Joe Wilcox  wrote following.   A software  update for  Microsoft's
    Windows  NT  operating   system  introduced  a   bug  that   could
    potentially  cripple  Lotus  Notes  unless  companies   compromise
    network security.  The bug  in Windows NT Service Pack  6 prevents
    users   from   accessing   Lotus    Notes   without  administrator
    rights--the  highest  and  broadest  level  of  access   typically
    reserved for  network managers.  Companies generally restrict user
    access  to  prevent  security  breaches or catastrophic accidental
    changes to PCs or servers.

    The bug  puts companies  that have  applied the  service pack in a
    bind, possibly forcing them to grant users temporary administrator
    privileges in order to use Lotus Notes.

    SP6 also stops  VNC  from  working unless run   with administrator
    privileges.  The error message is something like "error  disabling
    Nagle's algorithm".  This is apparently a result of a _tightening_
    of security in the TCP/IP code.  For more discussion, see:

        http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/archives/1999-11/0087.html

    VNC is an open source cross platform remote display system.   This
    problem was found by Peter M. Kane to also exists with Wall Data's
    "Rumba".

    Real issue  is that  it causes  some Winsock  apps to  not operate
    correctly unless the user is given local Admin rights.  One of the
    most prominent programs affected was Lotus Notes.  Credit goes  to
    the German IT magazine c't (http://www.heise.de/ct/) who were  one
    of the  first to  discover and  report this  bug on November 12th.
    See:

        http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-17.11.99-004/

    for full story in German.

SOLUTION

    There is a hotfix from Microsoft available from:

        http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q245/6/78.asp
        http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/afd.sys/NT4/EN-US/

    It  replaces  the  file  afd.sys  (Ancillary  Function  Driver for
    WinSock) with a new  version, which according to  Microsoft should
    fix  this  problem.   No  further  explanation  of  the problem is
    provided by the company.