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Web Worm Mars Microsoft Security Push
Reed Stevenson
SEATTLE (Reuters) -
The computer worm that exploited a flaw
in Microsoft Corp.'s database software to cripple global
networks turned out to be an unwelcome if unintended
anniversary for the No. 1 software maker's effort to make its
programs more secure.
Microsoft said the damage caused by the "SQL Slammer" worm
over the weekend, which targeted the company's corporate
database program of the same name, showed it was on the right
track with its "Trustworthy Computing" initiative, launched a
year and one week earlier by Chairman and founder Bill Gates (news - web sites).
But critics, who noted that some of Microsoft's own
computers were crashed by the Slammer worm, said the incident
demonstrated that Microsoft's tighter chain of security was
only as good as its weakest link: the thousands of harried
network administrators charged with updating Microsoft's
systems.
Saturday's attack on the Internet, the most damaging in 18
months, clogged the pipelines of the global Internet. Web
access was nearly shut down in South Korea (news - web sites), which bore the
brunt of the slowdown.
"We still have a lot more to do, but it (the worm attack)
shows how important the Trustworthy Computing initiative is,"
Scott Charney, Microsoft's Chief Security Strategist, told
Reuters on Monday.
Charney said the main goal for Microsoft in the wake of the
attack was to make sure customers were aware that a patch for
the security hole in SQL, which had been available since last
summer, could be downloaded and installed to prevent the worm
or some variant from flaring up again.
"The single largest message is: keep your system up to date
with patches," Charney said.
In response, security experts lashed out at Microsoft,
saying that the software giant still needed to make a greater
effort to plug potential holes in its products.
"I don't buy it," Bruce Schneier, Chief Technology Officer
of networking monitoring company Counterpane Internet Security
said regarding Microsoft's call for system engineers to install
updates to its software.
"That's blaming the victim," Schneier said.
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Although the security patch, which addresses a security
hole in SQL, was available since last July, many system
administrators had failed to implement the fix because they
often required extensive testing before installation, Schneier
said.
With numerous patches for all of its products, security
experts said the main objective should be to develop software
that was free of patches or less prone to security flaws, not
to constantly issue fixes and risk attacks from malicious
programs.
While governments were still probing the source of the
worms, which remained a mystery, security experts dismissed the
idea that the worm might have been deliberately timed to
coincide roughly with the first anniversary of Microsoft's
secure computing drive.
BITTER MEDICINE
Microsoft also saw some of its own computers taken down by
the worm, after the malicious program infected SQL servers on
the software giant's own network that had not had the
appropriate patch installed.
Microsoft spokesman Rick Miller said none of Microsoft's
SQL server connected to the Internet were affected. Instead,
internal SQL servers running on computers used by developers
were infected, causing a slowdown in the Redmond,
Washington-based company's own internal network.
Charney said the greatest challenge for Microsoft was
making sure that information was being passed on to users and
that they learn of critical updates for software.
In response to Saturday's attack, Microsoft said it had
built an installation program to make it easier to implement
the patch, offered top-level support to its customers, offered
a toll free service number (1-866-PCSAFETY in the United
States) and was working with the Computer Emergency Response
Team and other agencies to investigate the attack.
Other security experts said software users would have to
accept the fact that software, whether it be Microsoft's or any
other platform, would remain buggy and nearly impossible to
secure, given the complexity of modern software design.
"In their defense, they provided a patch six months ago,"
said Marc Willebeek-LeMair, Chief Technology Officer of
TippingPoint Technologies Inc., which developed an
"inoculation" that allowed networks to shut out SQL Slammer.
"We all know that when you have millions of lines of code
(the underlying instructions for software programs) there are
going to be bugs, said Willebeek-LeMair.
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