************************************************************************* Security Bulletin 9824 DISA Defense Communications System August 19, 1998 Published by: DISN Security Coordination Center (SCC@NIC.MIL) 1-(800) 365-3642 DEFENSE INFORMATION SYSTEM NETWORK SECURITY BULLETIN The DISN SECURITY BULLETIN is distributed by the DISN SCC (Security Coordination Center) under DISA contract as a means of communicating information on network and host security exposures, fixes, and concerns to security and management personnel at DISN facilities. Back issues may be obtained via FTP from NIC.MIL [207.132.116.5] using login= "anonymous" and password="guest". The bulletin pathname is scc/sec-yynn (where "yy" is the year the bulletin is issued and "nn" is a bulletin number, e.g. scc/sec-9705.txt). These are also available at our WWW site, http://nic.mil. ************************************************************************** + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + ! ! ! The following important advisory was issued by the Microsoft ! ! Product Security Response Team and is being relayed unedited ! ! via the Defense Information Systems Agency's Security ! ! Coordination Center distribution system as a means of ! ! providing DISN subscribers with useful security information. ! ! ! + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + ============================================================================= Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS98-012) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Updates available for Security Vulnerabilities in Microsoft PPTP Originally Posted: August 18, 1998 Last Revised: August 18, 1998 Summary ======= Microsoft has released a set of patches that fix several security issues with implementations of the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) used in Microsoft Virtual Private Networking (VPN) products. Customers using affected software listed below to secure communcations over a public network (i.e. the Internet) should download and apply these patches as soon as possible. Customers who are not using PPTP for network security are not affected by this issue. Issue ===== The Microsoft implementation of PPTP uses MS-CHAP for user authentication and Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption (MPPE) to protect the confidentiality of user data. Potential vulnerabilities addressed by these updates include: - Dictionary attack against the LAN Manager authentication information - Password theft - PPTP server spoofing - Reuse of MPPE session keys While there have not been any reports of customers being adversely affected by these problems, Microsoft is releasing these patches to address the implied risks posed by these issues. Affected Software Versions ========================== The following software is affected by this vulnerability: - Microsoft Dialup Networking 1.2x and earlier on Windows 95 - Microsoft Remote Access Services on Windows NT 4.0 (both client and server) - Microsoft Routing and Remote Access Services on Windows NT Server 4.0 - Microsoft Windows 98 Dialup Networking What Microsoft is Doing ======================= On August 18th Microsoft released a set of patches that fix the problems identified. These patches are available for download by Windows NT, Windows 95 and Windows 98 customers from the Microsoft FTP site. Microsoft has sent this security bulletin to customers subscribing to the Microsoft Product Security Notification Service (see http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletin.htm for more information about this free customer service). Microsoft has published the following Knowledge Base (KB) articles on this issue: - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article Q154091, Windows 95 Dial-Up Networking 1.3 Upgrade Release Notes, http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q154/0/91.asp - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article Q189594, RRAS Hotfix 3.0 http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q189/5/94.asp - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article Q189595, Windows NT 4.0 PPTP Security Update, http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q189/5/95.asp - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article Q189771, Windows 98 PPTP Security Update, http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q189/7/71.asp What customers should do ======================== Microsoft highly recommends that users of affected software versions, listed in the "Affected Software Versions" section above, should download the appropriate patch. Complete URLs for each affected software version is given below. Windows NT 4.0 RAS Users ------------------------ Download the patch from: - ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/ fixes/usa/NT40/hotfixes-postSP3/pptp3-fix/ NOTE: The above link has been wrapped for readability. Windows NT 4.0 RRAS Users ------------------------- Download the patch from: - ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/ fixes/usa/NT40/hotfixes-postSP3/rras30-fix/ NOTE: The above link has been wrapped for readability. Windows 95 Users ---------------- Download the patch from: - ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/msdun13.exe Windows 98 Users ---------------- Download the patch from: - ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/softlib/mslfiles/dun40.exe Strong Encryption Versions (128-bit) ------------------------------------ Customers in the United States and Canada can download the strong encryption versions of these updates from: - http://mssecure.www.conxion.com/cgi-bin/ntitar.pl More Information ================ Please see the following references for more information related to this issue. - Microsoft Security Bulletin MS98-012, Updates available for Security Vulnerabilities in Microsoft PPTP, (the Web posted version of this bulletin), http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/ms98-012.htm - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article Q154091, Windows 95 Dial-Up Networking 1.3 Upgrade Release Notes, http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q154/0/91.asp - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article Q189594, RRAS Hotfix 3.0 http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q189/5/94.asp - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article Q189595, Windows NT 4.0 PPTP Security Update, http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q189/5/95.asp - Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article Q189771, Windows 98 PPTP Security Update, http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q189/7/71.asp Revisions ========= - August 18, 1998: Bulletin Created For additional security-related information about Microsoft products, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/security ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE MICROSOFT KNOWLEDGE BASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. 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