Overview
A flaw in certain configurations of Windows 2000 can allow an intruder to make an unlimited number of guesses to attempt to determine a password, despite policies intended to limit the number of guesses.
Description
Domain administrators can set policies governing certain aspects of behavior within a domain. One of the policies that can be set is the number of failed password attempts before the account will be locked out. This is intended to prevent an intruder from attempting to guess a password through brute force. Under some circumstances, described in detail in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS-089, the policy can be circumvented, allowing an intruder to make repeated unlimited attempts to guess a password. The policy would be enforced relative to attempts to authenticate to the domain, but not relative to cached credentials. |
Impact
An intruder can attempt to guess (possibly in an automated fashion) passwords on a Windows 2000 machine. |
Solution
Apply the patches and workarounds described in http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=25606. |
Vendor Information
CVSS Metrics
| Group | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|
| Base | ||
| Temporal | ||
| Environmental |
References
Acknowledgements
Our thanks to Microsoft for the information contained in their advisory, and to Finch Brett, who reported the information to Microsoft.
This document was written by Shawn V. Hernan.
Other Information
| CVE IDs: | None |
| Severity Metric: | 3.15 |
| Date Public: | 2000-11-21 |
| Date First Published: | 2001-05-01 |
| Date Last Updated: | 2001-06-26 02:19 UTC |
| Document Revision: | 9 |