Windows Releases Emergency Patch

Redmond Rushes Out Emergency Windows Patch

This (out of band) emergency patch is rated critical for W2K, WXP, and W2K3. "Critical" means it is a hole big enough to allow the machine to be taken over from the outside. It's a really nasty one as this is a vulnerability that could be exploited to make the next "Killer Worm" so it's important to patch ASAP. Attackers have already begun limited, targeted attacks, we have samples in-house of the trojans in-the-wild that are being used in targeted attacks, taking advantage of this exploit.

Here's how they described it.

"The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an affected system received a specially crafted RPC request. On Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 systems, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability without authentication to run arbitrary code. It is possible that this could be used in the crafting of a wormable exploit. Firewall best practices and standard default firewall configurations can help protect network resources from attacks that originate outside the enterprise perimeter. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting the way that the Server service handles RPC requests." An advisory stated the flaw is a less serious risk for Vista and W2K8:
http://www.wservernews.com/GWS3XW/081027-Security-Bulletin
More detail at the MS security blog:
http://www.wservernews.com/GWS3XW/081027-MS08-067

Wise to install ASAP

Done... on all 3 computers. No problems so far.