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CERT® Incident Note IN-2001-11

The CERT Coordination Center publishes incident notes to provide information about incidents to the Internet community.

Cache Corruption on Microsoft DNS Servers

Release Date: August 31, 2001

Systems Affected

  • Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 systems running Microsoft DNS Server

I. Overview

The CERT/CC has received reports from sites experiencing cache corruption on systems running Microsoft DNS Server. The default configuration of this software allows data from malicious or incorrectly configured servers to be cached in the DNS server. This corruption can result in erronous DNS information later being returned to any clients which use this server.

II. Description

In the default configuration, Microsoft DNS server will accept bogus glue records from non-delegated servers. These bogus records will be added to the cache when a client attempts to resolve a particular hostname served by a malicious or incorrectly configured DNS server. The client can be coerced to request such a hostname as a result of an otherwise non-malicious piece of HTML email (such as spam) or in banner advertisements on websites, to give some examples.

Based on information contained in reports of this activity, there are sites actively engaged in this deceptive DNS resolution. These reports indicate that malicious DNS servers are providing bogus glue records for the generic top-level domain servers (gtld-servers.net) potentially resulting in erroneous results (e.g., failed resolution or redirection) for any DNS request.

More information about the problem can be found at

VU#109475 - Microsoft Windows NT and 2000 Domain Name Servers allow non-authoritative RRs to be cached by default
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/109475

Secure server cache against names pollution
http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWS2000/en/server/help/sag_DNS_pro_SecureCachePollutedNames.htm

How to Prevent DNS Cache Pollution (Q241352)
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q241/3/52.ASP
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/regentry/46753.asp

III. Impact

Clients resolving hostnames against the corrupted cache can be unknowingly redirected to illegitimate sites. Additionally, applications that rely on DNS information for authentication or access control can potentially be manipulated by erroneous information stored in the cache.

IV. Solutions

Apply the workarounds supplied by Microsoft at

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q241/3/52.ASP

V. References

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFCs):

IETF RFC 1034: DOMAIN NAMES - CONCEPTS AND FACILITIES
IETF RFC 1035: DOMAIN NAMES - IMPLEMENTATION AND SPECIFICATION
IETF RFC 1912: Common DNS Operational and Configuration Errors
IETF RFC 2181: Clarifications to the DNS Specification

VI. Reporting

The CERT/CC is interested in receiving reports of this activity. If machines under your administrative control are compromised, please send mail to cert@cert.org with the following text included in the subject line: "[CERT#29164]".

Author(s): Chad Dougherty, Roman Danyliw

CERT/CC Contact Information

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Revision History 

August 31, 2001: Initial Release