What's this bulletin about?
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS00-084 announces the availability of a patch that eliminates a vulnerability in Microsoft® Indexing Services for Windows 2000. Microsoft is committed to protecting customers' information, and is providing the bulletin to inform customers of the vulnerability and what they can do about it.
What's the scope of the vulnerability?
This vulnerability could enable a malicious user to cause code to run on the machine of another user in the guise of a third-party web site. Such code could take any action on the user's computer that the third-party web site was permitted to take. In addition, the code could be made persistent, so that if the user returned to the web site again in the future, the code would begin running again.
The vulnerability could only be exploited if the user clicked on a hypertext link, either in an HTML mail or on a malicious user's web site - the code could not be "injected" into an existing session. The patch provided in the bulletin should be applied by web server administrators, and will help prevent their sites from being used as the third-party site mentioned above.
What causes the vulnerability?
The CiWebHitsFile component provided by Indexing Services doesn't properly validate all inputs before using them, and is consequently vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting (CSS).
What is the Indexing Service?
The Indexing Service is a search engine that is integrated with Internet Information Server and Windows 2000. It allows users to perform full-text searches of online sites using their browsers. Unlike many other search engines, Indexing Services can search Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents as well as HTML documents.
Is the Indexing Service installed and running by default?
No. In Windows 2000, Indexing Services is installed by default, but the service is not started unless the administrator explicitly starts it.
What is Cross Site Scripting?
CSS is a recently-discovered security vulnerability that potentially enables a malicious user to "inject" code into a user's session with a web site. Unlike most security vulnerabilities, CSS doesn't apply to any single vendor's products - instead, it can affect any software that runs on a web server and doesn't follow defensive programming practices. In early 2000, Microsoft and the CERT Coordination Center worked together to inform the software industry of the issue and lead an industry-wide response to it.
Microsoft published extensive information about CSS, including information for developers on how to check their code for potential vulnerabilities. Microsoft has identified and corrected a specific instance in Indexing Services where proper checking was not performed. The patch provided in the bulletin eliminates this flaw.
How does CSS work?
A good description is available in the form of an executive summary and a FAQ. However, at a high level of detail, here's how CSS works.
Suppose Web Site A offers a search feature that lets a user type a word or phrase he'd like to search for. If the user typed "banana" in as the search phrase, the site would search for the phrase, then generate a web page saying "I'm sorry, but I can't find the word 'banana'". It would send the web page to his browser, which would then parse the page and display it.
Now suppose that, instead of entering "banana" as the search phrase, he entered something like "banana ‹SCRIPT› ‹Alert('Hello');› ‹/SCRIPT›". If the search feature were written to blindly use whatever search phrase it's provided, it would search for the entire string, and create a web page saying "I'm sorry, but I can't find the word "banana ‹SCRIPT› ‹Alert('Hello');› ‹/SCRIPT›"". However, all of the text beginning with "‹SCRIPT›" and ending with "‹/SCRIPT›" is actually program code, so when the page was processed, a dialogue box would be displayed by the user's browser, saying "Hello".
So far, this example has only shown how a user could "relay" code off a web server and make it run on his own machine. That's not a security vulnerability. However, it's possible for a malicious web site operator to invoke this vulnerability to run on the computer of a user who visits his site. If Web Site B were operated by a malicious user and he was able to entice the user into visiting his web site and clicking a hyperlink, his site could go to Web Site A, fill in the search page with malicious script, and submit it on behalf of the user. The resulting page would return to the user (since the user, having clicked on the hyperlink, was ultimately the requester), and process on the user's machine. The end result would be that the malicious user's script would run on the user's machine.
What could the script do on the user's machine?
It would depend on the privileges Web Site A has on the user's machine. If both Web Site A and B had exactly the same permissions on a particular user's machine, it wouldn't confer any advantages. However, if the user had designated Web Site A as a trusted site, and allowed it to have greater privileges on his machine, the malicious user's code could take advantage of these increased privileges.
Would it matter what browser the user was using?
No. The important point here is that the problem lies with the software on the web server, not with the browser. The vulnerability could potentially occur any time software on the web server blindly uses whatever inputs it's provided. Instead, it should filter out any inputs that aren't appropriate. In the example above, the search engine should strip out any characters that could be used to inject script into the search process, such as "". A full description of the characters that should be filtered is available in Knowledge Base article Q252985.
I run a web site. In the example above, which web site would be mine?
Your web site would be Web Site A. The vulnerability wouldn't directly pose a threat to your web site - that is, the malicious user wouldn't seek to compromise your site, and the vulnerability wouldn't allow him to add, change or delete any content on it. However, he could use your site as a means of attacking users.
So, this patch needs to be installed on servers, not on browsers?
Yes. Customers using an affected product should install the patch to prevent their web site from being used in a CSS scenario.
What about the other software running on my web server? Could it be used for CSS?
Any software running on a web server could be vulnerable to CSS if it:
- solicits input from the user
- uses the input blindly, without performing validity checks, and
- incorporates the input into a dynamic web page that's sent to the user
Microsoft recommends that customers running web sites contact the suppliers of all software running on their servers, and verify that the vendor has reviewed it for CSS vulnerabilities.
Who Should use the patch?
Microsoft recommends that the patch be installed on any web server that has enabled Indexing Services for Windows 2000.
What does the patch do?
The patch eliminates the vulnerability by properly validating all data sent to the Indexing Service.
Where can I get the patch?
The download location for the patch is provided in the "Patch Availability" section of the security bulletin .
How do I use the patch?
The Knowledge Base article contains detailed instructions for applying the patch to your site.
How can I tell if I installed the patch correctly?
The Knowledge Base article provides a manifest of the files in the patch package.The easiest way to verify that you've installed the patch correctly is to verify that these files are present on your computer, and have the same sizes and creation dates as shown in the KB article.
What is Microsoft doing about this issue?
- Microsoft has delivered a patch that eliminates the vulnerability.
- Microsoft has provided a security bulletin and this FAQ to provide customers with a detailed understanding of the vulnerability and the procedure to eliminate it.
- Microsoft has sent copies of the security bulletin to all subscribers to the Microsoft Product Security Notification Service, a free e-mail service that customers can use to stay up to date with Microsoft security bulletins.
- Microsoft has issued a Knowledge Base article explaining the vulnerability and procedure in more detail.
Where can I learn more about best practices for security?
The Microsoft TechNet Security web site is the best to place to get information about Microsoft security.
How do I get technical support on this issue?
Microsoft Product Support Services can provide assistance with this or any other product support issue.
