FIX: Memory usage increases and IIS 5.0 stops responding when ASP buffering is enabled

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0 may stop responding. Additionally, the memory usage of IIS may increase before IIS stops responding.

By default, Active Server Pages (ASP) buffering is enabled in IIS 5.0. When ASP buffering is enabled, a response buffer is built to buffer page output. When the page output is buffered, the server does not send the response to the client until all the server-side scripts on the page have been processed.

This problem may occur if ASP buffering is enabled and one of the following conditions is true:

• On Error Resume Next is configured for a page, and an error occurs on the page.
• An invalid Recordset object is used in a Loop in an ASP page. A Recordset object may become invalid if the code that is used to create it generates an exception that is not handled by the ASP page.

When this problem occurs, IIS experiences a never-ending cycle that may cause a very large allocation of memory to IIS, and then IIS may stop responding.

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required.

Restart requirement

You must stop and then restart Internet Information Services after you apply this hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix does not replace any other hotfixes.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time item in Control Panel.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

The AspBufferingLimit property sets the maximum size of the ASP buffer. If response buffering is turned on, this property controls the maximum bytes that an ASP page can write to the response buffer before the buffer is flushed. When the buffering limit is configured, any response that exceeds the limit will send a 500 server error response with the following script error:where /<somepage.asp> refers to the ASP page requested and the line number is the last line number that was processed before the response buffer exceeded the limit. The failed response will also be logged in the IIS log file with the following error added to the 'cs-uri-query' field: For more information about the AspBufferingLimit property, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about the naming schema for Windows software updates, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about the terminology that is used to describe Microsoft product updates, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: