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Squatting attack

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the file is scanned, otherwise it is ignored. The manual scanner, then, to operate, opens the named event, sets it before scanning (disabling the service), scans the file system and resets the event back when finished. This design is prone to a squatting attack because a malicious program can set the
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operating system, which offers named objects as an interprocess synchronization mechanism. With named objects, a process may open a synchronization object as a shared resource by just specifying a name. Subsequent processes may use the same name to open that resource and have a way to synchronize
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when a user requests it. Under normal conditions the service should scan the system occasionally. However, if a user requests a manual scan, the service must stop temporarily to let the manual scanner work, otherwise every file would be scanned twice: by the manual scanner and by the service. To
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with the first process. The squatting attack is possible because, if the legitimate program does not enforce tight security rules for the resources, processes from arbitrary security contexts may gain access to them and ultimately take control of the system.
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solve this problem the vendor chooses to implement an event based synchronization mechanism, where the service keeps a named event opened and checks it whenever a file is opened. If the event is
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The example serves just as an illustration. Additional components might be required for it to work properly, as e.g. a
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installed on a Microsoft Windows machine. The solution has two pieces: a
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interferes with another program through the use of shared
140:"PsExec, User Account Control and Security Boundaries" 172: 64:named event and disable the service completely. 137: 35:objects in an unwanted or unexpected way. 173: 100: 79: 13: 14: 197: 138:Russinovich, Mark (2007-02-12). 115: 103:"Whidbey's Security Off Model" 94: 73: 1: 131: 80:Zhang, Junfeng (2006-04-23). 101:Farkas, Shawn (2005-04-28). 38:That attack is known in the 7: 158:Microsoft Developer Network 10: 202: 82:"Private Object Namespace" 186:Denial-of-service attacks 67: 46:Consider, for example, 181:Concurrency control 48:antivirus software 40:Microsoft Windows 193: 167: 165: 164: 149: 147: 146: 126: 119: 113: 112: 110: 109: 98: 92: 91: 89: 88: 77: 21:computer science 17:Squatting attack 201: 200: 196: 195: 194: 192: 191: 190: 171: 170: 162: 160: 152: 144: 142: 134: 129: 120: 116: 107: 105: 99: 95: 86: 84: 78: 74: 70: 33:synchronization 23:, is a kind of 12: 11: 5: 199: 189: 188: 183: 169: 168: 154:"Object Names" 150: 133: 130: 128: 127: 114: 93: 71: 69: 66: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 198: 187: 184: 182: 179: 178: 176: 159: 155: 151: 141: 136: 135: 124: 118: 104: 97: 83: 76: 72: 65: 62: 57: 53: 49: 44: 41: 36: 34: 30: 26: 22: 18: 161:. Retrieved 143:. Retrieved 117: 106:. Retrieved 96: 85:. Retrieved 75: 60: 45: 37: 16: 15: 56:file system 175:Categories 163:2007-05-15 145:2007-05-15 132:References 108:2007-05-15 87:2007-05-15 25:DoS attack 27:where a 52:service 29:program 123:driver 68:Notes 61:unset 19:, in 177:: 156:. 166:. 148:. 125:. 111:. 90:.

Index

computer science
DoS attack
program
synchronization
Microsoft Windows
antivirus software
service
file system
"Private Object Namespace"
"Whidbey's Security Off Model"
driver
"PsExec, User Account Control and Security Boundaries"
"Object Names"
Microsoft Developer Network
Categories
Concurrency control
Denial-of-service attacks

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