Windows Server 2003 and XP SP2 LAND attack vulnerability

[Dejan Levaja <dejan () levaja com>]

Hello, everyone.

Windows Server 2003 and XP SP2 (with Windows Firewall turned off)  are vulnerable to LAND attack. 

LAND attack:
 Sending TCP packet with SYN flag set, source and destination IP address and source and destination port as of 
destination machine, results in 15-30 seconds DoS condition. 


Tools used:
 IP Sorcery for creating malicious packet, Ethereal for sniffing it and tcpreplay for replaying. 

Results:
 Sending single LAND packet to file server causes Windows explorer freezing on all workstations currently connected to 
the server. CPU on server goes 100%. Network monitor on the victim server sometimes can not even sniff malicious 
packet. Using tcpreplay to script this attack results in total collapse of the network.

Vulnerable operating systems:
Windows 2003
XP SP2
other OS not tested (I have other things to do currently – like checking firewalls on my networks ;) )

Solution:
 Use Windows Firewall on workstations, use some firewall capable of detecting LAND attacks in front of your servers.

Ethic:
 Microsoft was informed 7 days ago (25.02.2005, GMT +1, local time), NO answer received, so I decided to share this 
info with security community. 


Dejan Levaja
System Engineer 
Bulevar JNA 251
11000 Belgrade
Serbia and Montenegro
cell: +381.64.36.00.468
email: dejan () levaja com