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Security Bulletin

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS00-023 - Critical

Patch Available for "Myriad Escaped Characters" Vulnerability

Published: April 12, 2000

Version: 1.0

Originally Posted: April 12, 2000

Summary

Microsoft has released a patch that eliminates a security vulnerability in Microsoft® Internet Information Server. The vulnerability could allow a malicious user to slow a web server's response or prevent it from providing service altogether for a period of time.

Frequently asked questions regarding this vulnerability and the patch can be found at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/fq00-023.mspx

General Information

Issue

Special characters can be embedded in URLs by use of so-called escaped character sequences. By providing a specially-malformed URL with an extremely large number of escaped characters, a malicious user could arbitrarily increase the work factor associated with parsing the escaped characters, thereby consuming much or all of the CPU availability on the server and preventing useful work from being done.

The vulnerability does not provide any capability to cause the server to fail, or to add, change or delete data on it. The slowdown would only last until the URL had been processed, at which point service would return to normal.

Affected Software Versions

  • Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0
  • Microsoft Internet Information Server 5.0

Vulnerability Identifier: CVE-2000-0258

Patch Availability

More Information

Please see the following references for more information related to this issue.

Obtaining Support on this Issue

This is a fully supported patch. Information on contacting Microsoft Technical Support is available at </https:>https:.

Acknowledgments

Microsoft thanks Vanja Hrustic of the Relay Group for reporting the "Myriad Escaped Character" vulnerability to us and working with us to protect customers.

Revisions

  • April 12, 2000: Bulletin Created.

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