Security researcher Marc Maiffret of eEye digital Security has accused Microsoft of misleading customers in its advisory issued on Wednesday about a vulnerability in Windows Media Services.

Maiffret said that, contrary to Microsoft's advice, "this... vulnerability is exploitable, as confirmed in the labs at eEye, and by the discoverer of this vulnerability, Brett Moore."

He said: "I am not sure why Microsoft misidentified this vulnerability... maybe it is just a typo, maybe its a lack of technical know-how. Either way they need to re-release this advisory so that the correct information is given to customers."

Maiffret said there was a a big difference in telling customers 'Ahh, its a denial of service, and your web server will automatically restart' compared to the reality of the situation: 'If you're running Windows Media Services on IIS, attackers can spawn a remote shell 'command prompt' on your vulnerable system.'

[ Read more ]