Microsoft's Patch Tuesday for July has turned up a total
ofsix aggregate problems, and the two
most potentially dangerous problems are issues with Active
Directory and the .NET Framework.The biggest of the bunch is probably the
vulnerability in Windows Active Directory,
found in Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003 (all
versions). Someone that has access to AD as an authenticated
user could in theory craft an LDAP request that could bring
Active Directory to its knees - either by running an arbitrary
payload or by just instigating a denial-of-service attack.
Before you panic, though, keep in mind that, again, it requires
an authenticated user to pull it off. Microsoft does recommend only
allowing authorized hosts to perform LDAP queries as an additional
layer of safety. (Instructions on how to do that are in the
Active Directory vulnerability article.)
Another patch release is a possible troublemaker for anyone
running
.NET applications on Internet Information Services [IIS]. They
should pay close attention to a clutch of issues in .NET, all
versions from 1.0 through 2.0, that make it possible for someone to
remotely execute arbitrary code.
Specifically, this refers to the
ASP.NET Null Byte Termination Vulnerability
described in that article. The other
.
NET vulnerabilities are more desktop than server issues, but
Microsoft treats them all as one here, so if you patch one you'll
patch them all.
An issue with Excel affects, unfortunately, all editions of the
program, although Office 2007 still seems to be faring a lot better
than its predecessors when it comes to security issues. Ditto with
Windows Vista: This month has turned up a Vista problem, but it's
neither universal nor something that lends itself to actually
taking control of a machine. That doesn't mean it should be taken
lightly, however: As with all other Patch Tuesday releases, patch
early and patch often.
Last of all, a
Vista issue might allow an attacker to learn
a little more about a machine behind the Windows Vista Firewall.
It's not one that'll put too black a mark on Vista's security
record, though, since the vulnerability in question isn't
exposed by default on all Vista machines -- and it doesn't
actually allow an attack per se.