WinNuke - Definition and Overview

The term WinNuke refers to a remote denial-of-service attack (DoS) that affected the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system.

The exploit sent a string of OOB (Out Of Bound) data to the target computer on TCP port 139 (NetBIOS), causing it to lock up and display a "blue screen of death." (BSoD)

There were no long-term effects to a system, but any unsaved data would have been lost.

A person under the screename "_eci" published his Microsoft C source code for the exploit on June 7, 1997. With the source code being widely used and distributed, Microsoft was forced to create security patches, which were released a few weeks later.

See also

• Nuke (computer)

External links

• WinNuke Relief Page (http://www.users.nac.net/splat/winnuke/)
• Article on a more recent variation of WinNuke (Published: 10/2/02) (http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6313-1054537.html)
• WinNuke Vulnerability Test (http://www.jtan.com/resources/winnuke.html)