Allaire Security Bulletin (ASB00-08)
                  Microsoft Internet Information Server Patch Available for "Myriad Escaped Characters"
                  Vulnerability

                  Originally Posted: April 24, 2000
                  Last Updated: April 24, 2000

                  Summary
                  Microsoft has announced a Microsoft has released a patch that eliminates a security
                  vulnerability in Microsoft(r) Internet Information Server. The vulnerability could allow a malicious
                  user to slow a web server's response or prevent it from providing service altogether for a
                  period of time. This is not a problem with ColdFusion Server itself, but it is an issue that can
                  affect ColdFusion users. Allaire recommends that customers follow the instructions posted on
                  the Microsoft Web site to address this issue.

                  Issue
                  This issue is clearly explained in the Microsoft Security Bulletin: "Special characters can be
                  embedded in URLs by use of so-called escaped character sequences. By providing a
                  specially-malformed URL with an extremely large number of escaped characters, a malicious
                  user could arbitrarily increase the work factor associated with parsing the escaped characters,
                  thereby consuming much or all of the CPU availability on the server and preventing useful work
                  from being done."

                  Further: "The vulnerability does not provide any capability to cause the server to fail, or to add,
                  change or delete data on it. The slowdown would only last until the URL had been processed, at
                  which point service would return to normal."

                  Affected Software Versions

                       Any ColdFusion Server running on Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 or Microsoft
                       Windows 2000 

                  What Allaire is Doing
                  This is not an Allaire product. We are recommending that customers reference the information
                  at Microsoft's site to address this issue.


                  What Customers Should Do
                  There is a patch available to correct this problem. It is detailed in the following Microsoft
                  Security Bulletin (MS00-023):

                  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms00-023.asp

                  Please note: this issue and patch may not be required for all IIS users. Allaire customers
                  should review all material in the Microsoft Security Bulletin and related documents
                  carefully before applying the patch. As always, customers should test patch changes in
                  a testing environment before modifying production servers.

                  Revisions
                  April 24, 2000 -- Bulletin first created.

                  Reporting Security Issues
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                  on how they can protect themselves. If you identify what you believe may be a security issue
                  with an Allaire product, please send an email to secure@allaire.com. We will work to
                  appropriately address and communicate the issue.

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                  For additional information on security issues at Allaire, please visit the Security Zone at:
                  http://www.allaire.com/security

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