US ISP requires password changes

✍ Scribed by Barbara Gengler

• Book ID: 104391289
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 198 KB
• Volume: 2000
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1353-4858
• DOI: 10.1016/s1353-4858(00)87652-7

✦ Synopsis

Microsoft has acknowledged a vulnerability in its SQL Server Version 7.0 that could lead to a hack and said it has made moves to tighten the product's security.

Blake Coverett, a senior software developer at a hobby game maker called Wizards of the Coast, discovered that a new capability in the latest release of the server that allows it to link to other servers, opened a door that, under some circumstances, could leave the database vulnerable to unauthorized intrusions.

Coverett and Microsoft officials have said that the problem should not alarm SQL Server administrators because it is easily worked around. "It is not critical, but it is something that should be documented. It is never going to be perfectly secure -it is just a question of making it a little harder to get into and documenting the fact that it's pretty easy to get into right now", Coverett said.