Microsoft to issue emergency patch for ASP.Net vuln
Microsoft will release an emergency patch on Tuesday that plugs a security hole in a variety of its web developer tools that has been under active attack for more than a week.
The vulnerability in ASP.Net applications allows attackers to decrypt password files, cookies, and other sensitive data that is supposed to remain encrypted as they pass from the server to a web browser. It works by flooding a server with thousands of corrupted web requests and then analyzing the error messages and other responses that result. The series of responses are known as a “cryptographic padding oracle” that over time deliver information that an attacker can deduce the secret key used to scramble the communications.
The vulnerability was disclosed two weeks ago at the Ekoparty conference in Argentina. Microsoft soon responded with an advisory that warned that the vulnerability was under “limited attack.” It recommended that users implement several temporary measures to make the exploits harder to carry out.
