[1][USEMAP] [2][USEMAP] [3][LINK] Allaire Security Bulletin (ASB00-31) Microsoft (MS00-080): Patch Available for "Session ID Cookie Marking" Vulnerability Originally Posted: October 31, 2000 Last Updated: October 31, 2000 Summary Microsoft has released a patch that eliminates a security vulnerability in Microsoft(r) Internet Information Server. The vulnerability could allow a malicious user to "hijack" another user's secure web session, under a very restricted set of circumstances. This is not a problem with the ColdFusion Server, but it is an issue that can affect ColdFusion users, as described in the Issue section. Allaire recommends that customers follow the instructions posted on the Microsoft Web site to address this issue. Issue This issue is clearly explained in the Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS00-080): IIS supports the use of a Session ID cookie to track the current session identifier for a web session. However, .ASP in IIS does not support the creation of secure Session ID cookies as defined in RFC 2109. As a result, secure and non-secure pages on the same web site use the same Session ID. If a user initiated a session with a secure web page, a Session ID cookie would be generated and sent to the user, protected by SSL. But if the user subsequently visited a non-secure page on the same site, the same Session ID cookie would be exchanged, this time in plaintext. If a malicious user had complete control over the communications channel, he could read the plaintext Session ID cookie and use it to connect to the users session with the secure page. At that point, he could take any action on the secure page that the user could take. The conditions under which this vulnerability could be exploited are rather daunting. The malicious user would need to have complete control over the other users communications with the web site. Even then, the malicious user could not make the initial connection to the secure page only the legitimate user could do that. The patch eliminates the vulnerability by adding support for secure Session ID cookies in .ASP pages. (Secure cookies already are supported for all other types of cookies, under all other technologies in IIS). Source: Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS00-080) [online]. [Redmond, Washington, USA] : Microsoft, October 2000 [cited 24 October 2000]. Available from World Wide Web: <[4]http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms00-080.asp>. Affected Software Versions * Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0 * Microsoft Internet Information Services 5.0 What Allaire is Doing This is not an Allaire product. We are recommending that customers reference the information at Microsoft's web site to address this issue. What Customers Should Do There is a patch available to correct this problem. It is detailed in the following Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS00-080): [5]http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms00-080.asp Please note: this issue and patch may not be required for all users. Allaire customers should review all material in the Microsoft Security Bulletin and related documents carefully before applying the patch. As always, customers should test patch changes in a testing environment before modifying production servers. Revisions October 31, 2000 -- Bulletin first created. Reporting Security Issues Allaire is committed to addressing security issues and providing customers with the information on how they can protect themselves. If you identify what you believe may be a security issue with an Allaire product, please send an email to secure@allaire.com. We will work to appropriately address and communicate the issue. Receiving Security Bulletins When Allaire becomes aware of a security issue that we believe significantly affects our products or customers, we will notify customers when appropriate. Typically this notification will be in the form of a security bulletin explaining the issue and the response. Allaire customers who would like to receive notification of new security bulletins when they are released can sign up for our security notification service. For additional information on security issues at Allaire, please visit the Security Zone at: [6]http://www.allaire.com/security. THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY ALLAIRE IN THIS BULLETIN IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. ALLAIRE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 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