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Title: Microsoft MSDTC TIP Distributed Denial Of Service Vulnerability

Severity: HIGH

Description:

The Microsoft MSDTC (Microsoft Distribution Transaction Coordinator) service is prone to a vulnerability that may permit denial of service attacks against the service or facilitate distributed denial of service attacks against other computers.

The vulnerability exists in the TIP (Transaction Internet Protocol) functionality that is provided by MSDTC. Specifically, the vulnerability is caused by a flaw in how the MSDTC service handles TIP requests. The TIP service runs on port 3372.

An attacker can connect to the service and provide an identifier that contains a target IP address and port number. This is followed by sending a specific sequence of commands that cause an unspecified error and result in the affected service connecting to the target IP and port. The DTC service then repeatedly connects to the target computer. If the target computer does not provide a certain unspecified set of response messages to the IDENTIFY request, the DTC service disconnects and then reconnects. The attacker can increase connections made by the service to the target computer by submitting new transactions to DTC. This attack can allow the attacker to proxy a denial of service attack against computer through the DTC service.

The MSDTC server can also be crashed by providing an identifier containing the loopback address and specifying the port to TCP port 445.

The vulnerability may be exploited to deny availability of services that depend on MSDTC. It is also possible to exploit the issue to relay TIP messages to other computers. In this manner, this vulnerability could facilitate distributed denial of service attacks as multiple vulnerable computers could be used to attack other computers on the Internet.

This issue only exists on operating systems that have support for the TIP protocol enabled. This vulnerability is remotely exploitable on default configurations on Windows 2000. TIP is not enabled by default on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 even if the MSDTC service is running.

Update: Microsoft reports several systems have experienced one or more problems after installing the critical update from Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-051 for this issue. For a more detailed explanation of these problems please see the attached microsoft knowledge base article 909444.

Affected Products:

• Avaya DefinityOne Media Servers
• Avaya DefinityOne Media Servers R10
• Avaya DefinityOne Media Servers R11
• Avaya DefinityOne Media Servers R12
• Avaya DefinityOne Media Servers R6
• Avaya DefinityOne Media Servers R7
• Avaya DefinityOne Media Servers R8
• Avaya DefinityOne Media Servers R9
• Avaya IP600 Media Servers
• Avaya IP600 Media Servers R10
• Avaya IP600 Media Servers R11
• Avaya IP600 Media Servers R12
• Avaya IP600 Media Servers R6
• Avaya IP600 Media Servers R7
• Avaya IP600 Media Servers R8
• Avaya IP600 Media Servers R9
• Avaya S3400 Message Application Server
• Avaya S8100 Media Servers
• Avaya S8100 Media Servers R10
• Avaya S8100 Media Servers R11
• Avaya S8100 Media Servers R12
• Avaya S8100 Media Servers R6
• Avaya S8100 Media Servers R7
• Avaya S8100 Media Servers R8
• Avaya S8100 Media Servers R9
• Avaya Unified Communication Center
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP1
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP2
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP3
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server SP1
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server SP2
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server SP3
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server SP4
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP1
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP2
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP3
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP4
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server SP1
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server SP2
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server SP3
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server SP4
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Terminal Services
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Terminal Services SP1
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Terminal Services SP2
• Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 SP6a
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition Itanium
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition Itanium SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Itanium
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Itanium SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Web Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Web Edition SP1
• Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition SP1
• Microsoft Windows XP Home
• Microsoft Windows XP Home SP1
• Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition SP1
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition SP2
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP1
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
• Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP1
• Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2
• Nortel Networks CallPilot 3.0.0
• Nortel Networks CallPilot 4.0.0
• Nortel Networks Centrex IP Client Manager
• Nortel Networks Centrex IP Client Manager 2.5.0
• Nortel Networks Centrex IP Client Manager 7.0.0
• Nortel Networks Centrex IP Client Manager 8.0.0
• Nortel Networks Centrex IP Element Manager 2.5.0
• Nortel Networks Centrex IP Element Manager 7.0.0
• Nortel Networks Centrex IP Element Manager 8.0.0

References:

• Microsoft: Knowledge Base Article - 909444
• Microsoft: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-051
• Nortel Networks: Centrex IP Client Manager (CICM) response to Microsoft October security bulletin
• iDEFENSE: Microsoft Distributed Transaction Controller Packet Relay DoS Vulnerability

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