RE: First vulnerabilities in the SP2 - XP ?...

["Thor Larholm" <tlarholm@xxxxxxxx>]

> From: Radoslav Dejanović [mailto:radoslav.dejanovic@xxxxxxxx] 
> > On Monday 16 August 2004 15:58, Jrme ATHIAS wrote:
> > http://www.heise.de/security/artikel/50051

> This might be SP2 bug only if the same bug can't be repeated 
> on pre-SP2 machine. Didn't test, but I think this is an old 
> trick. Anyone care to test it?

The entire concept of the Zone.Identifier altenate data stream is new to XPSP2. 
Whenever you download any file from the web IE will add an ADS called 
Zone.Identifier which specifies what IE security zone the file originated from. 
Later, when the user tries to execute this file, Explorer itself will check for 
this ADS. If it does not exist Explorer will simply execute the file as it has 
always done, but if it does exist and it specifies the Internet zone Explorer 
will then check for a valid digital signature. If such a signature is not found 
Explorer will prompt the user and ask whether to execute this unknown 
executable from an unknown publisher.

Regardless of whether we think this has a high practical impact the advisory 
from Jürgen does specify a way to circumvent a desired security functionality 
which has been addded to XPSP2. Circumventing a desired security functionality 
is always interested, especially seeing as this is one of many first steps in a 
move toward digitally signing all executables on the Windows platform.



Regards

Thor Larholm
Senior Security Researcher
PivX Solutions
23 Corporate Plaza #280
Newport Beach, CA 92660
http://www.pivx.com
thor@xxxxxxxx
Stock symbol: (PIVX.OB)
Phone: +1 (949) 231-8496
PGP: 0x4207AEE9
B5AB D1A4 D4FD 5731 89D6  20CD 5BDB 3D99 4207 AEE9

PivX defines a new genre in Desktop Security: Proactive Threat Mitigation. 
<http://www.pivx.com/qwikfix>