Denial of Service Attack Causes TCP Stack to Consume All the Memory on a Server

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This article was previously published under Q280446

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SYMPTOMS

During a denial-of-service attack, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) stack may use up all the memory on the computer that is being attacked.

When this happens, if you use the PING command, you receive an "out of quota" error message. If you run the Ipconfig.exe program, you receive an "application could not be initialized properly" error message and a run-time error. You cannot gain access to the Network tool in Control Panel. After the attack, you cannot start any programs in Windows 2000. The computer becomes useless as a network server.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260910/EN-US/ ) How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

   Date        Time    Version        Size    File name
   --------------------------------------------------
   01/18/2001  07:57a  5.0.2195.2848  311,472  tcpip.sys
   10/25/2000  05:02p  5.0.2195.2572   16,240  tdi.sys

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Windows 2000. This problem was first corrected in Windows 2000 Service Pack 2.

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MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about how to install Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 hotfixes at the same time, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

249149 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249149/EN-US/ ) Installing Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Hotfixes

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