SANS Alert: 'Code Red Is Set to Come Storming Back!'
SANS, Microsoft, the NIPC, CERT/CC and four other leading security organizations released the following alert today (Sunday, January 29) at 4 pm. EDT.
A Very Real and Present Threat to the Internet: July 31 Deadline For Action
Summary: The Code Red Worm and mutations of the worm pose a continued and serious threat to Internet users. Immediate action is required to combat this threat. Users who have deployed software that is vulnerable to the worm (Microsoft IIS Versions 4.0 and 5.0) must install, if they have not done so already, a vital security patch.....
How Big Is The Problem? On July 19, the Code Red worm infected more
than 250,000 systems in just 9 hours. The worm scans the Internet,
identifies vulnerable systems, and infects these systems by
installing itself. Each newly installed worm joins all the others
causing the rate of scanning to grow rapidly. This uncontrolled
growth in scanning directly decreases the speed of the Internet and
can cause sporadic but widespread outages among all types of
systems. Code Red is likely to start spreading again on July 31st,
2001 8:00 PM EDT and has mutated so that it may be even more
dangerous. This spread has the potential to disrupt business and
personal use of the Internet for applications such as electronic
commerce, email and entertainment.
Who Must Act? Every organization or person who has Windows NT or
Windows 2000 systems AND the IIS web server software may be
vulnerable. IIS is installed automatically for many applications. If
you are not certain, follow the instructions attached to determine
whether you are running IIS 4.0 or 5.0. If you are using Windows
95, Windows 98, or Windows Me, there is no action that you need to
take in response to this alert.
What To Do If You Are Vulnerable?
a. To rid your machine of the current worm, reboot your computer.
b. To protect your system from re-infection: Install Microsoft's
patch for the Code Red vulnerability problem:
Windows NT version 4.0:
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=30833
Windows 2000 Professional, Server and Advanced Server:
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=30800
Step-by-step instructions for these actions are posted at
www.digitalisland.net/codered
Microsoft's description of the patch and its installation, and the
vulnerability it addresses is posted at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-033.asp
Because of the importance of this threat, this alert is being made
jointly by:
Microsoft
The National Infrastructure Protection Center
Federal Computer Incident Response Center (FedCIRC)
Information Technology Association of America (ITAA)
CERT Coordination Center
SANS Institute
Internet Security Systems
Internet Security Alliance
SANS.
