Microsoft Windows NT 4.0/TSE Winsock2ProtocolCatalogMutex has insecure permissions (MS01-003)

Overview

A mutex controlling access to resources required for networking on Windows NTMicrosoft Windows NT 4.0 and Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Terminal Server Edition, has inappropriate permissions.

Description

In general terms, a mutex is an object used to control access to a resource (e.g. a printer, disk, segment of memory, data structure, etc.) so that only a single “consumer” (e.g. a process or program) can have access to the resource at any one time. That is, it enforces a policy of mutualexclusion between would-be consumers of a resource, typically so that access to the resource can by properly synchronized. A process that has acess to a resource controlled by a mutex is said to have locked the mutex. A process that “wants” a resource locked by another process is said to be waiting on the mutex, or waiting on a locked mutex.

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Terminal Server Edition uses a mutex named Winsock2ProtocolCatalogMutex to control access to resources required for NT networking to function properly. On unpatched versions of Windows, the mutex is protected inappropriately so that ordinary users can disable access to the mutex by changing the ACL on the mutex , or lock the mutex indefinitely. In either case, the intruder can effectively disable network access on that machine.

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Impact

Intruders who can log in locally can effectively disable network access for the machine.

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Solution

Apply a patch as described in MS01-003.

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Vendor Information

354648

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Microsoft __ Affected

Notified: January 24, 2001 Updated: February 05, 2001

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

See <http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-003.asp&gt;

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us [email](<mailto:[email protected]?Subject=VU%23354648 Feedback>).

CVSS Metrics

Group	Score	Vector
Base
Temporal
Environmental

References

• <http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-003.asp&gt;
• <http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/fq01-003.asp&gt;
• <http://ntsecurity.nu/advisories/a15.shtml&gt;

Acknowledgements

Our thanks to Arne Vidstrom who discovered the problem, and Microsoft for the information provided in their bulletin.

This document was written by Shawn V. Hernan.

Other Information

CVE IDs:	CVE-2001-0006
Severity Metric:	2.16 Date Public: