Net-Sec newsletter 
Issue 20 - 03.07.2000 
http://net-security.org 

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Table of contents: 

1) General security news 
2) Security issues 
3) Security world 
4) Defaced archives 



General security news 
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SECURITY CHECKS CRASH ROUTERS 
Red-faced networking giant Cisco has been forced to warn customers that its 
routers can crash when tested for security vulnerabilities by security scanning 
software programs. 
Link: http://www.vnunet.com/News/1104718 


SECURE MESSAGING 
Critical Path detailed a suite of secure messaging services designed to help 
enterprises protect information assets such as engineering drawings, financial 
documents, and legal agreements transferred over the Internet. 
Link: http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/06/26/000626hncritical.xml 


UK BACKS OFF AWAY FROM RIP BILL 
CNN reports that the U.K. government is backing away from some of the more 
controversial aspects of its e-mail surveillance bill (Regulation of Investigatory 
Powers - RIP) currently under consideration in the House of Lords. 
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/06/26/cybersnoop.idg/index.html 


CRACKED! PART 6: TELKING WITH THE ENEMY 
"Soon after rebuilding the system I started talking to someone on IRC that 
identified themselves as the person that had cracked our system. He was 
connecting from the same places that the cracker had been coming from and 
seemed to know things that only the cracker would have known, so I decided 
to take him at face value. Over the first couple of weeks we talked about a 
variety of subjects. I have selected some of the most interesting bits and 
grouped them together to give an idea of the flavor of the conversations. It 
was an interesting window into the mind of someone living a very different life." 
Link: http://www.rootprompt.org/article.php3?article=588 


SCENES FROM THE "HACKERS" HOOD 
"The impression that most people fail to get from regular attacks is how trivial 
they are," said Elias Levy, chief technology officer of SecurityFocus.com. 
"These people tend to choose their targets pretty much at random - or 
whoever bothers them that day, or pisses them off." 
Link: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,37238,00.html 


VIRUS SCAN FOR HANDHELDS 
It looks like McAfee is now offering virus scanning software for handheld 
computers. Altought there are no viruses for handhelds, there is an option 
to infect when you sync your handheld and your PC. Contributed by Brian. 
Link: http://www.mcafee.com/wireless/handscan/default.asp? 


MATTEL AND PRIVACY 
In response to public complaints about privacy, Mattel Interactive announced 
that the company would provide a tool that removes software that was 
surreptitiously placed on customers' computers and is designed to transmit 
and receive information to Mattel. 
Link: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/DailyNews/mattel000624.html 


BANK DETAILS SNATCHED 
A man calling himself 'Kelly' rang ABC radio station 2BL claiming he had 
accessed company details from the GST information site www.gstassist.gov.au, 
which contains the details of about 27,000 businesses. According to ZDnet AU, 
he said that he he simply used a inserted numbers between 1 and 27,000 into 
a CGI output and it retrieved records. Contributed by Apocalyse Dow. 
Link: http://www.zdnet.com.au/zdnn/stories/zdnn_display/au0003700.html 


NIKE HIJACKING, PART II 
Nike.com hijacking received a sequel - when Nike's website was hijacked last 
week, traffic was redirected through one man's Web servers in the U.K., 
bogging them down and costing his Web hosting company time and money 
(at least he says so). Now he is suing Nike and he created "Shame on Nike" 
web site. 
Link: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37286,00.html 
Link: http://www.shameonnike.com/ 


LOVE LETTER CREATOR CHARGED 
Onel de Guzman is charged for writting the Love Letter worm. The National 
Bureau of Investigation will charge de Guzman "traditional" crimes such as 
theft and violation of a law that normally covers credit card fraud. If 
charged maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. 


COMPUTER ASSOCIATES REBUFFS SOPHOS ALLEGATIONS 
Simon Perry, Computer Associates' vice president, told Newsbytes that he 
viewed Sophos' comments as irrelevant, adding that the approach his firm 
takes with warnings customers about viruses is to warn them of any potential 
problems, for whatever reason. "Our reporting of viruses to our customers 
has drawn kudos, both from customers and the industry at large," he said, 
adding that the company aims to quickly let people know what the latest 
virus is and what the associated dangers are. 
Link: http://www.computeruser.com/news/00/06/30/news19.html 


STUDENT ADMITS GOVERNMENT ATTACKS 
A university student admitted in Boston federal court to breaking into U.S. 
government computers including Defense Department and NASA systems. 
Ikenna Iffih, a student at Northeastern University's College of Computer 
Science, pleaded guilty to a series of coast-to-coast cyber attacks before 
U.S. District Judge Robert Keeton late on Thursday. 
Link: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37352,00.html 


SEGA DREAMCAST COPYRIGHT PROTECTION BROKEN 
The Dreamcast game system has been viewed as one of the most secure 
digital entertainment systems on the market. It looks like it is not so 
secure. Group called Utopia has broken through copyright protections 
of the system. 
Link: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2181596.html?tag=st.ne.1005.sndstry.ni 


LEE ASHURT'S POINT OF VIEW 
Lee Ashurst accused of hacking into and sabotaging the Internet service 
Etisalat, has filed a defamation suit in Dubai against them. He has also 
set up a site with his opinion on the whole situation. 
Link: http://www.supportlee.4mg.com/ 


ISSUE DISCLOSURE POLICY 
Lewis Z. Koch did an article on Rain Forrest Puppy's "issue disclosure policy", 
a text dealing with reporting vulnerabilities to vendors. First version of this 
text file was sent to Bugtraq approximately 3 weeks ago. 
Link: http://mcafee.snap.com/main/page/pcp/cd/0,85,-1716-1431464-397786,00.html 


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Security issues 
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All vulnerabilities are located at: 
http://net-security.org/text/bugs 


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IE 5 AND EXCEL 2000, POWERPOINT 2000 VULNERABILITY 
Internet Explorer 5.01, Excel 2000 and PowerPoint under Windows 98 (suppose 
other versions are also vulnerable, have not tested) allow executing programs 
when viewing a web page or HTML email message - in the latter case at least 
with IFRAME. This allows taking full control over user's computer. 
Link: http://www.net-security.org/text/bugs/962198313,44285,.shtml 


IE 5 AND ACCESS 2000 VULNERABILITY 
Internet Explorer 5.01 and Access 2000 under Windows 98 (suppose other 
versions are also vulnerable) allow executing programs when viewing a web 
page or HTML email message - (in the latter case with IFRAME). This allows 
taking full control over user's computer. 
Link: http://www.net-security.org/text/bugs/962198423,71032,.shtml 


PATCH FOR "ACTIVE SETUP DOWNLOAD" PROBLEM 
Microsoft has released a patch that eliminates a security vulnerability in an 
ActiveX control that ships with Microsoft Internet Explorer. The vulnerability 
could be used to overwrite files on the computer of a user who visited a 
malicious web site operator's site. 
Link: http://www.net-security.org/text/bugs/962463758,19962,.shtml 


DOS IN MICROSOFT WINDOWS 2000 SERVER 
Multiple ports and protocols on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server are 
susceptible to a simple network attack which raises CPU utilization on 
Windows 2000 Server to 100%. 
Link: http://www.net-security.org/text/bugs/962540960,71332,.shtml 


DOS IN CHECK POINT FIREWALL-1 ON WINDOWS NT 
The SMTP Security Server component of Check Point Firewall-1 4.0 and 
4.1 is vulnerable to a simple network-based attack which raises the 
firewall load to 100%. 
Link: http://www.net-security.org/text/bugs/962541047,22517,.shtml 


DOS IN MICROSOFT WINDOWS 2000 TELNET SERVER 
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server is supplied with a Telnet server for remote 
console access. A Denial of Service vulnerability exists in this server which 
may be exploited by a local or remote attacker. 
Link: http://www.net-security.org/text/bugs/962541114,23868,.shtml 


BOA WEBSERVER LOCAL PATH PROBLEM 
BOA Webserver is a small fast webserver that supports only basic functions. 
It beats the pants off of apache for speed however, the only problem is that 
it does not do any URL parsing. It admits this (somewhere on the page it says 
you better lock down your file system real good), but the problem still remains. 
Basically you can specify the full local path to any file on a Boa webserver and 
out it spits the contents. i.e. 
Link: http://www.net-security.org/text/bugs/962541273,5729,.shtml 


[MANDRAKE] WU-FTPD UPDATE 
Wu-ftpd is vulnerable to a very serious remote attack in the SITE EXEC 
implementation. Because of user input going directly into a format string for 
a *printf function, it is possible to overwrite important data, such as a return 
address, on the stack. 
Link: http://www.net-security.org/text/bugs/962578199,96510,.shtml 


[MANDRAKE] - DHCP UPDATE 
The OpenBSD team discovered a vulnerability in it that allows for remote 
exploitation by a corrupt dhcp server, (or an attacker pretending to be a dhcp 
server). If this vulnerability is exploited, root access can be gained on the host 
running dhcp client remotely. The problem is that input is not checked and, as 
a result, it is possible to execute commands remotely when the network config 
files are being written on the dhcp client. 
Link: http://www.net-security.org/text/bugs/962578323,92268,.shtml 


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Security world 
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All press releases are located at: 
http://net-security.org/text/press 

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CENTRAL COMMAND ANNOUNCES PERFECTSUPPORT - [26.06.2000] 
Today Central Command announced PerfectSupport, a new support service that 
provides mission critical antivirus support and services. This subscription service 
provides maximum virus protection to all organizations where virus prevention, 
and malicious application recovery is critical to their operation. This premium 
service includes unlimited toll-free phone support at any time and priority access 
to Central Command's Emergency Virus Response Team during virus outbreaks. 

Press release: 
< http://www.net-security.org/text/press/962040421,209,.shtml > 

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eWEEK CHALLENGES PUBLIC TO HACK THEM - [27.06.2000] 
In its second major test of Web enterprise security, Labs Interactive, by the 
editors of eWEEK, in conjunction with digital security services firm Guardent, has 
created an e-commerce site and is challenging the public to hack the site at 
openhack.com. Prize money of up to $2,500 will be awarded to the first hacker to 
crack the site which mimics a true corporate e-commerce network, including e-mail, 
Web server, a database application, remote access and five different operating 
systems. The challenge goes live on June 26 and runs through the first two weeks 
of July. 

Press release: 
< http://www.net-security.org/text/press/962098245,92659,.shtml > 

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GENUITY ANNOUNCES ENHANCED FIREWALL SERVICES - [27.06.2000] 
Genuity Inc., formerly GTE Internetworking, today announced significant new 
enhancements to the Site Patrol for FireWall-1 family of managed Internet 
security services. Designed to secure high-volume enterprise intranets and 
e-business extranets, new leading-edge features include the industry's first High 
Availability managed firewall service. Site Patrol uses StoneSoft Corporation's 
award-winning StoneBeat clustering technology with dynamic load balancing to 
ensure maximum availability, scalability and performance. In addition, a hot 
standby, High Availability option is also available for organizations with fixed 
throughput requirements. 

Press release: 
< http://www.net-security.org/text/press/962098361,38122,.shtml > 

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SECOND ANNUAL GLOBAL E-SECURITY CONVENTION - [28.06.2000] 
Baltimore Technologies, a global leader in e-security solutions, today announced 
the company's second annual Global e-Security Convention, focusing on the use 
of e-security to deliver secure, trusted business models and applications. Global 
e-Security 2000 is the most authoritative convention set up to educate delegates 
on the business and technology benefits of e-security. This convention will 
highlight PKI technology as an integral component of secure e-business with the 
ability to unleash endless opportunities for companies worldwide. 

Press release: 
< http://www.net-security.org/text/press/962198599,45835,.shtml > 

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CA ANNOUNCES ETRUST SINGLE SIGN-ON 6.5 - [28.06.2000] 
Computer Associates International, Inc., the world's leading eBusiness solutions 
provider, today announced the general availability (GA) of eTrust Single Sign-On 
(SSO) 6.5, the industry-leading secured access solution. The latest version of 
eTrust SSO provides a comprehensive solution for eBusinesses desiring integrated 
SSO and access control capabilities for existing client/server and Web-based 
applications from a single product. 

Press release: 
< http://www.net-security.org/text/press/962198695,70218,.shtml > 

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CYLINK ANNOUNCES GENERAL EELEASE OF NETHAWK - [29.06.2000] 
On June 23, Cylink Corporation began customer shipments of its NetHawk, the 
company's new high-speed virtual private network (VPN) appliance for secure, 
site-to-site Internet communications. NetHawk is an Internet Protocol Security 
(IPSec) solution that transparently integrates into the network, providing an 
enterprise-strength combination of performance and manageability. 

Press release: 
< http://www.net-security.org/text/press/962275562,59227,.shtml > 

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FREE LINUX FIREWALL RELEASED TO PUBLIC - [01.07.2000] 
NetMaster Networking Solutions, Inc. of Chilliwack, B.C., announced today they 
are making their Gateway Guardian Personal Edition firewall software available 
FREE for personal and non-profit use. It can be downloaded off their web site, 
www.GatewayGuardian.com, and also from over 100 download sites across the 
Internet. "We have done this to meet the increasing demand for firewall protection 
from families adopting high-speed cable, and DSL internet connections across 
Canada and the U.S.," said Steve Hemenway, NetMaster's Vice President of Sales 
and Marketing. 

Press release: 
< http://www.net-security.org/text/press/962464441,94200,.shtml > 

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INTERPOL AND ATOMICTANGERINE ANNOUNCE ALLIANCE - [01.07.2000] 
Companies worldwide will have new access to superior intelligence in their war 
against global cyber crime as a result of an innovative alliance between the 
private and public sector. Working directly with Menlo Park-based venture 
consulting powerhouse AtomicTangerine, famous Lyon, France-based Interpol has 
initiated a special relationship designed to deliver advanced intelligence collected 
by the law enforcement organization to corporations worldwide. Interpol is the 
world's pre-eminent organization supporting the prevention and detection of 
international crime. 

Press release: 
< http://www.net-security.org/text/press/962550257,75895,.shtml > 

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Defaced archives 
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[25.06.2000] - Washington State Department of Social and Health Services 
Original: http://maa.dshs.wa.gov/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/06/25/maa.dshs.wa.gov/ 

[26.06.2000] - Epson 
Original: http://www.epson.com.cn/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/06/26/www.epson.com.cn/ 

[27.06.2000] - London Fire Brigade 
Original: http://www.londonfirebrigade.gov.uk/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/06/27/londonfirebrigade.gov.uk/ 

[27.06.2000] - Counterpart Consortium Turkmenistan 
Original: http://www.cpart.org 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/06/27/www.cpart.org/ 

[28.06.2000] - LSU School of Social Work 
Original: http://www.socialwork.lsu.edu/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/06/28/www.socialwork.lsu.edu/ 

[29.06.2000] - The Bloodhound Gang Online 
Original: http://www.bloodhoundgang.com/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/06/29/www.bloodhoundgang.com/ 

[29.06.2000] - HyperHog Internet Service 
Original: http://www.hyperhog.net/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/06/29/www.hyperhog.net/ 

[30.06.2000] - Banco Union Colombiano 
Original: http://www.bancounion.com.co/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/06/30/www.bancounion.com.co/ 

[30.06.2000] - Philippine Association for Open Computing 
Original: http://www.passoc.org/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/06/30/www.passoc.org/ 

[30.06.2000] - The Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade Turkey 
Original: http://www.foreigntrade.gov.tr/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/06/30/www.foreigntrade.gov..tr/ 

[01.07.2000] - White Force 
Original: http://www.whiteforce.com/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/07/01/www.whiteforce.com/ 

[01.07.2000] - College of New Caledonia 
Original: http://www.cnc.bc.ca/ 
Defaced: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/07/01/www.cnc.bc.ca/ 



HNS staff 
staff@net-security.org 
http://net-security.org