Secunia

John Lampe has discovered a vulnerability in Microsoft DirectPlay, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).

The vulnerability is caused due to an error within the implementation of the IDirectPlay4 API of Microsoft DirectPlay when validating packets. This can be exploited by sending a specially crafted packet to a vulnerable system.

Successful exploitation causes networked DirectPlay applications (typically network-based multi-player games) to fail and requires them to be restarted in order to resume functionality.

NOTE: The version 8 DirectPlay APIs, which are normally used by newer applications, are not affected. Microsoft also reports that the issue isn't critical on systems running Windows 98, Windows 98SE, and Windows Me.

Solution
Apply update automatically via Windows Update or manually.
Further details available in Customer Area

Provided and/or discovered by
John Lampe

Original Advisory
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-016.mspx

Deep Links
Links available in Customer Area