IPxray Issues Industry Alert for Top-5 Network Intrusion Vulnerabilities
STAMFORD, CT (PRWEB) December 14, 2004 — IPxray, the pain-free network vulnerability assessment company, today issued an industry alert for the top-5 network intrusion vulnerabilities that hackers are most likely to exploit. The results are based on vulnerability scans over the last 30 days of more than 4,000 corporate nodes using IPxray’s remotely hosted security scanning services. The results indicate that the most common intrusion vulnerabilities give hackers the ability to easily enter, disrupt or even take over corporate networks. The majority of these glaring security holes can be quickly fixed with software patches or upgrades.
“We have examined data from the thousands of networks that have been scanned by our service in the last month. It is clear that a significant number of sophisticated, corporate networks suffer from dangerous security vulnerabilities,” said Sholom Ellenberg, chief executive officer of IPxray, LLC and a certified CCIE. “The good news is that many of the most prevalent security holes can be fixed relatively easily. People just have to know to look for the vulnerabilities. By issuing this alert we want to illustrate the real potential for trouble that exists. We also hope that this alert is an incentive for IT and network managers to examine and fix their networks.”
Threat Overview
The most common security vulnerability IPxray exposed during the scans is the “IIS: WebDAV Overflow (MS03-007)”. According to Microsoft this vulnerability can allow an attacker to “Run code of attacker’s choice” on the affected server and has a severity rating of “Critical”. Windows 2000 servers running IIS are especially vulnerable and should be patched immediately.
The second most common security vulnerability found by the scans is the “Apache 1.3.31 htpasswd local overflow.” This vulnerability affects all Apache web servers with version numbers up to and including 1.3.31. The vulnerability is linked to a buffer overflow in the htpasswd command, which could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system with the same privileges as the httpd process. The recommended fix for this vulnerability is to upgrade to a version of Apache later then 1.3.31.
The third most common security vulnerability uncovered is “IIS FrontPage ISAPI Denial of Service.” According to Microsoft hackers can exploit this vulnerability to generate denial of service attacks on websites running Microsoft’s FrontPage web server. This is fixed in patch Q319733 from Microsoft and is listed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-018.
To check their network vulnerabilities against these and others, visitors can go to www.ipxray.com. The other intrusion vulnerabilities include:
” OpenSSH 3.7.1, php arbitrary file upload
” Apache mod_access rule bypass
Hacker attacks and break-ins of corporate networks grow in number every month. Aberdeen Group estimates that Internet-based disruptions that are being incurred by businesses from security-related causes such as worms and other online-related attacks cost corporations an average of $2 million an incident. Aberdeen’s research also states that companies average one incident a year.
About IPxray
IPxray is the pain-free network vulnerability assessment company. Its real-time, remotely hosted solutions provide an effective way for IT departments and network security consultants to quickly examine a network from the outside – looking in. IPxray has combined the best open-source scanning tools such as Nessus with powerful, proprietary scanning and monitoring tools to provide an unparalleled look at a corporate network – from the hacker’s point of view. Customers range from mid-size businesses to the world’s largest corporations. The company’s solutions are offered as a subscription service. IPxray is based in Stamford, Connecticut. For more information, visit at www.ipxray.com.