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Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS99-052)

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aleph One)
Mon Nov 29 22:40:30 1999

Message-Id:  <19991130043130.4256.qmail@underground.org>
Date:         Mon, 29 Nov 1999 20:31:30 -0800
Reply-To: aleph1@UNDERGROUND.ORG
From: Aleph One <aleph1@UNDERGROUND.ORG>
X-To:         bugtraq@securityfocus.com
To: BUGTRAQ@SECURITYFOCUS.COM

The following is a Security  Bulletin from the Microsoft Product Security
Notification Service.

Please do not  reply to this message,  as it was sent  from an unattended
mailbox.
                    ********************************

Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS99-052)
--------------------------------------

Patch Available for "Legacy Credential Caching" Vulnerability
Originally Posted: November 29, 1999

Summary
=======
Microsoft has released a patch that eliminates a security vulnerability in
Microsoft(r)  Windows(r) 95 and 98 caused by a legacy mechanism for caching
network security credentials. The  vulnerability could allow a user's
plaintext network password to be retrieved from the cache.

Frequently asked questions regarding this vulnerability can be found at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/MS99-052faq.asp.

Issue
=====
Windows for Workgroups(r) provided a RAM-based caching mechanism that cached
the user's plaintext  network credentials for use by real-mode command-line
networking utilities. Part of this  mechanism was carried forward into the
Windows 95 and 98 designs, even though it is not used by  either. A
malicious user could query this mechanism to obtain the network credentials
of the last  person to use the machine for network access, as long as they
had physical access to the machine  and it had not been rebooted since the
last networking session.

Affected Software Versions
==========================
 - Microsoft Windows 95
 - Microsoft Windows 98

Patch Availability
==================
 - Windows 95:
   http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/
   contents/WUCritical/password/default.asp
 - Windows 98:
   http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/
   contents/WUCritical/password/default.asp

NOTE: Line breaks have been inserted into the above URLs for readability.

NOTE: Windows 98 Second Edition is not affected by this vulnerability.

More Information
================
Please see the following references for more information related to this
issue.
 - Microsoft Security Bulletin MS99-052: Frequently Asked Questions,
   http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/MS99-052faq.asp.
 - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article Q168115,
   Windows Security Update Prevents Reading Domain Password,
   http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q168/1/15.asp.
   (Note: It may take 24 hours from the original posting of this bulletin
   for this KB article to be visible.)
 - Microsoft Security Advisor web site,
   http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.asp.

Obtaining Support on this Issue
===============================
This is a fully supported patch. Information on contacting Microsoft
Technical Support is available at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/contact/default.asp.

Revisions
=========
 - November 29, 1999: Bulletin Created.

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(c) 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use.

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