WASHINGTON · Researchers uncovered a serious flaw in the
underlying technology for nearly all Internet traffic, a discovery
that led to an urgent and secretive international effort to prevent
global disruptions of Web surfing, e-mails and instant
messages.
The British government announced the vulnerability
in core Internet technology on Tuesday. Left unaddressed, experts
said, it could allow hackers to knock computers offline and broadly
disrupt vital traffic-directing devices, called routers, that
coordinate the flow of data among distant groups of
computers.
The
risk was similar to Internet users "running naked through the
jungle, which didn't matter until somebody released some tigers,"
said Paul Vixie of the Internet Systems Consortium Inc.
"It's
a significant risk," Vixie said. "The larger Internet providers are
jumping on this big time. It's really important this just gets fixed
before the bad guys start exploiting it for fun and
recognition."
The flaw affecting the Internet's "transmission
control protocol," or TCP, was discovered late last year by a
computer researcher in Milwaukee. Paul Watson said he identified a
method to reliably trick personal computers and routers into
shutting down electronic conversations by resetting the machines
remotely.
Experts previously said such attacks could take
between four years and 142 years to succeed because they require
guessing a rotating number from roughly 4 billion possible
combinations. Watson said he can guess the proper number with as few
as four attempts, which can be accomplished within
seconds.
Routers continually exchange important updates about
the most efficient traffic routes between large networks. Continued
successful attacks against routers can cause them to go into a
standby mode, known as "dampening," that can persist for
hours.
Cisco Systems Inc., which acknowledged its popular
routers were among those vulnerable, distributed software repairs
and tips to otherwise protect large corporate customers. There were
few steps for home users to take; Microsoft Corp. said it did not
believe Windows users were too vulnerable and made no immediate
plans to update its software.
Using Watson's technique to
attack a computer running Windows "would not be something that would
be easy to do," said Steve Lipner, Microsoft's director for security
engineering strategy.
Already in recent weeks, some U.S.
government agencies and companies operating the most important
digital pipelines have fortified their own vulnerable systems
because of early warnings communicated by some security
organizations. The White House has expressed concerns especially
about risks to crucial Internet routers because attacks against them
could profoundly disrupt online traffic.
"Any flaw to a
fundamental protocol would raise significant concern and require
significant attention by the folks who run the major infrastructures
of the Internet," said Amit Yoran, the government's cybersecurity
chief. The flaw has dominated discussions since last week among
experts in security circles.
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