MS03-039: A Buffer Overrun in RPCSS May Allow Code Execution (824146)

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is a protocol that is used by Windows. RPC provides an inter-process communication mechanism that allows a program that is running on one computer to seamlessly access services on another computer. The protocol itself is derived from the Open Software Foundation (OSF) RPC protocol, but with the addition of some Microsoft-specific extensions.

Affected Software:

There are three identified vulnerabilities in the part of the Windows RPC service (RPCSS) that deals with RPC messages for DCOM activation. Two of the vulnerabilities might allow arbitrary code to be run; one of the vulnerabilities might result in a denial of service. The flaws result from incorrect handling of malformed messages. These vulnerabilities affect the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) interface in RPCSS. This interface handles DCOM object activation requests that are sent by client computers to the server.

An attacker who successfully exploits these vulnerabilities might be able to run code with Local System rights on an affected computer, or could cause RPCSS to stop working. The attacker could then take any action on the computer, including installing programs, viewing, changing, or deleting data, or creating new accounts with full rights.

To exploit these vulnerabilities, an attacker could create an exploit program to send a malformed RPC message that targets RPCSS on a vulnerable server.

Goto : Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-039 and Download locations for this patch



View : Microsoft Knowledge Base article (824146)