[ Thanks to Jeff
Stephens for this link. ]
A lot of readers are probably familiar with Steve Gibson’site
GRC.com as a place to go for superficial verification of
workstation security via free, web-based portscans. GRC.com
recently fell victim to a packet-flooding DoS attack. He argues
that Microsoft, in implementing the complete Unix sockets
specification for Win2000/XP, has opened the Internet to “an
escalation of Internet terrorism the likes of which has never been
seen before.” In this follow-up after a meeting with Microsoft
officials, he’s even more convinced that Microsoft knows little
about security, as they have included “Full Raw Socket” support
without the safeguards that exist in UNIX-based systems.
In his own words:
“The experience with Windows-based denial of service attacks
focused my attention on Microsoft’s planned release of Windows XP
with its planned inclusion of ‘Full Raw Socket’ support. Full raw
sockets are a powerful and dangerous Internet API that exists in
all Unix-based operating systems. But under Unix they are
deliberately protected by the rigorous requirement for “root”
privilege. (Similar to Microsoft’s “Administrative” privilege.)
However Microsoft has done away with this distinction in the Home
Edition of Windows XP which threatens to populate the world with a
needlessly dangerous capability.”