Microsoft released a new security fix just in this moment. Full information now exclusive here on W2S. Why patch what already has been addressed back in February? A second catch seems to be included in this update: users report that the patch causes major slowdowns in Windows XP.
MS Fix Survey:
A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to compromise a computer running Microsoft® Windows® XP and gain complete control over it. An attacker would need the ability to log onto the computer locally to carry out an attack. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft.
Background: The Windows kernel is the core of the operating system. It provides system level services such as device and memory management, allocates processor time to processes, and manages error handling. There is a flaw in the way the kernel passes error messages to a debugger. This flaw causes a vulnerability. An attacker could write a program to exploit this flaw and run code of their choice. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take any action on the system including deleting data, adding accounts with administrative access, or reconfiguring the system. For an attack to be successful, an attacker would have to be able to log on interactively to the system, either at the console or through a terminal session. Also, a successful attack would require the introduction of code to exploit this vulnerability. Security Best Practices resources recommend that you restrict the ability to log on interactively on servers. As a result, this issue most directly affects client systems and terminal servers. Funny enough this patch is already superseded by Windows XP Patch: Hibernation Problem On Computers With 1 GB Of RAM. Therefore we decided against adding it to our comprehensive Windows XP update article: Click to read the original story back from February. Download:
Download Q811493 - German
Download Q811493 - English
Download Details
MS Fix Survey:
A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to compromise a computer running Microsoft® Windows® XP and gain complete control over it. An attacker would need the ability to log onto the computer locally to carry out an attack. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft.
Background: The Windows kernel is the core of the operating system. It provides system level services such as device and memory management, allocates processor time to processes, and manages error handling. There is a flaw in the way the kernel passes error messages to a debugger. This flaw causes a vulnerability. An attacker could write a program to exploit this flaw and run code of their choice. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take any action on the system including deleting data, adding accounts with administrative access, or reconfiguring the system. For an attack to be successful, an attacker would have to be able to log on interactively to the system, either at the console or through a terminal session. Also, a successful attack would require the introduction of code to exploit this vulnerability. Security Best Practices resources recommend that you restrict the ability to log on interactively on servers. As a result, this issue most directly affects client systems and terminal servers. Funny enough this patch is already superseded by Windows XP Patch: Hibernation Problem On Computers With 1 GB Of RAM. Therefore we decided against adding it to our comprehensive Windows XP update article: Click to read the original story back from February. Download:
Download Q811493 - German
Download Q811493 - English
Download Details
