Vulnerability Note VU#411059

Microsoft Windows Universal Plug and Play (UPNP) fails to limit the data returned in response to a NOTIFY message

Overview

Microsoft Windows Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack that could negatively affect the performance of vulnerable machines.

I. Description

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a system designed to allow network devices to operate together. One of the UPnP protocols is called the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP). When a UPnP device joins a network, it announces itself through an SSDP NOTIFY message. The SSDP NOTIFY message includes a reference to a network location from which configuration information about the device can be retrieved. Other UPnP devices on the network that are interested in the newly announced device will consult the location specified in the NOTIFY message. An intruder can specify a specific location that may, for example, provide an enless stream of data (e.g., an echo service). The Microsoft Windows UPnP service will allocate memory in response to the endless stream of data, thus consuming memory and processor time, resulting in potentially severe performance degredation.

For more information, see

http://www.eeye.com/html/Research/Advisories/AD20011220.html

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-059.asp

This vulnerability was discovered by Eeye Digital Security.

II. Impact

An intruder can consume memory and processor time on vulnerable systems.

III. Solution

Apply a patch as described in MS01-059.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Microsoft	Vulnerable	20-Dec-2001

References

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-059.asp
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=34991
http://download.microsoft.com/download/winme/Update/22940/WinMe/EN-US/314757USAM.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=34951
http://www.upnp.org/
http://www.upnp.org/download/upnp_vendor_implementation_guide_jan2001.htm
http://www.upnp.org/download/draft_cai_ssdp_v1_03.txt

Credit

Our thanks to Eeye Digital Security, who discovered the problem, and Microsoft for the information contained in their bulletins.

This document was written by Shawn V Hernan.

Other Information

Date Public:	2001-12-20
Date First Published:	2001-12-20
Date Last Updated:	2001-12-20
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):	CAN-2001-0877
NVD-ID(s):	CAN-2001-0877
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	4.56
Document Revision:	10

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