PROPOSAL: Cluster 33 - NT-REGISTRY (6 candidates)

["Steven M. Christey" <coley@linus.mitre.org>]

These candidates are related to registry keys in Windows NT.  Like the
candidates in the DATA clutser, they may appear to be at a high level
of abstraction.  They use the Data Access content decisions.

I distinguish between the permissions for the key itself, and the
value of the key.  In some cases the permissions may be fine, but the
value could result in a vulnerability.

The specific candidates for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
come from several security tools, which often cite permission problems
with these particular high-level keys.

I am not an NT expert, but my guess is that application-critical and
system-critical registry keys are High Cardinality, and maybe they are
Not Enumerable.  But if we can enumerate all the system-critical or
application-critical keys, then it is perhaps more appropriate to use
that level of abstraction, though I suspect it could produce an
unmanageably high number of vulnerabilities in the CVE.

A middle-ground approach might be to group keys using the Different
Functionality content decision, but how would we define "different
functionality" in this context?  Do we separate by the application and
underlying OS function?  We could consider the hierarchical structure
of the registry keys, and apply the Same Checkbox content decision at
the "leaf" level.  For example, I imagine that IIS probably has a
number of application-critical or even system-critical keys, though
all of those keys probably fall under an IIS "parent" key and might
effectively appear in the same "checkbox" in the registry editor.
Thus IIS might be an appropriate level.

Comments?

- Steve



Summary of votes to use (in ascending order of "severity"):

ACCEPT - member accepts the candidate as proposed
NOOP - member has no opinion on the candidate
MODIFY - member wants to change some minor detail (e.g. reference/description)
REVIEWING - member is reviewing/researching the candidate
RECAST - candidate must be significantly modified, e.g. split or merged
REJECT - candidate is "not a vulnerability", or a duplicate, etc.

Please write your vote on the line that starts with "VOTE: ".  If you
want to add comments or details, add them to lines after the VOTE: line.


=================================
Candidate: CAN-1999-0580
Published:
Final-Decision:
Interim-Decision:
Modified:
Announced: 19990803
Assigned: 19990607
Category: CF

The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key in a Windows NT system has inappropriate,
system-critical permissions.

VOTE:

=================================
Candidate: CAN-1999-0581
Published:
Final-Decision:
Interim-Decision:
Modified:
Announced: 19990803
Assigned: 19990607
Category: CF

The HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key in a Windows NT system has inappropriate,
system-critical permissions.

VOTE:

=================================
Candidate: CAN-1999-0589
Published:
Final-Decision:
Interim-Decision:
Modified:
Announced: 19990803
Assigned: 19990607
Category: CF

A system-critical Windows NT registry key has inappropriate
permissions.

VOTE:

=================================
Candidate: CAN-1999-0611
Published:
Final-Decision:
Interim-Decision:
Modified:
Announced: 19990803
Assigned: 19990607
Category: CF

A system-critical Windows NT registry key has an inappropriate value.

VOTE:

=================================
Candidate: CAN-1999-0664
Published:
Final-Decision:
Interim-Decision:
Modified:
Announced: 19990803
Assigned: 19990803
Category: CF

An application-critical Windows NT registry key has inappropriate
permissions.

VOTE:

=================================
Candidate: CAN-1999-0665
Published:
Final-Decision:
Interim-Decision:
Modified:
Announced: 19990803
Assigned: 19990803
Category: CF

An application-critical Windows NT registry key has an inappropriate
value.

VOTE: