Microsoft has been stung into action by Gartner security analyst John Pescatore's conclusion that businesses should ditch IIS - the Beast's own web server - for safer alternatives.
Redmond is telling its sales channel that a rewrite of IIS is underway for version 6.0, and will introduce interim security measures along the lines of the lock-down utility, because, it says, "we also realize customers cannot wait that long."
Most remarkably, it's even mulling whether to leave the web server IIS - along with many other services - uninstalled by default.
And now the bad news
Indications are that the rewrite of IIS is "partial" and that one feature of the new server in particular troubles IIS users. At its TechEd Forum this year Microsoft promised to implement some httpd functionality into the kernel. In 1996, Microsoft moved some graphics routines into the kernel, gaining performance at the expense of stability.
http.sys will be the name of the new device driver and Microsoft claims it increases SSL performance by up to 900 per cent, and doubles standard cgi performance.
"Does this mean script kiddies will be able to generate BSODS, too?" asks one correspondent. On the face of it, yes.
View: The Gartner advisory
News source: The Register
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