5 ms·
It would allow the same privileges as the user which is running IIS, usually a "system" account - which equals Administrative privileges.
by Mojah 12y ago
It would allow the same privileges as the user which is running IIS, usually a "system" account - which equals Administrative privileges.
- noselasd 12y agoIIS has several components. One of them, the vulnerable part here, is running in kernel space. In kernel space you have access to everything. As far as I know, IIS is the only(bar embedded devices running a single address space OS and various ancient/obsolete toys servers on linux) used in production that handles part of HTTP in kernel space (or ring 0 if you will).
- eis 12y agoYou two seem to not understand still, please re-read my comment. The point is this is allowing code execution within the kernel of windows. It doesn't even reach the IIS userland process.
- reidrac 12y agoMy windows knowledge is rusty and outdated but... do you mean that code runs in ring 0? that "kernel space"?
- eis 12y agoYes
- bontoJR 12y agoI actually don't because I have no clue how Windows Server works. So this attack hits the kernel and the context is low level, right?
- eis 12y agoNot sure if I am not clear enough but yes, it 'hits the kernel and the context is low level'. As low as it can get on Windows.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- eis 12y agoI have trouble understanding what you want to say but I did not say what you quoted me with. Please don't put words in my mouth. The title was giving people the wrong impression about the severity of the vulnerability. This has nothing to do with "avoid giving people ideas" which would be stupid anyways.
- est 12y agoSYSTEM account is far more powerful than Administrator, especially after Win2008
- maxerickson 12y agoThis page makes it sound easy to go from the one to the other: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2008/10/22/getting-a-cmd-prompt-as-system-in-windows-vista-and-windows-server-2008.aspx http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2008/10/22/getting-... (not as easy as earlier versions, but still)
- thefreeman 12y agothat is from 7 years ago...
- maxerickson 12y agoSure. I read est as saying that Administrators are more restricted in Server 2008 than they were in earlier Windows versions. I assumed they were talking about the relatively well known technique of scheduling a cmd shell to run as SYSTEM, which that blog mentions being prevented in Server 2008. But you would still expect an Administrator account to be able to load files onto the system, so obtaining the SYSTEM shell remains pretty easy. The distinction between SYSTEM and Administrator was a convenience, and if I understood est correctly, it still is.
- treyslay 12y agoEither way you have root level privileges, it's game over...