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Home >> Browse Vulnerability Assessment Database >> Windows >> The alerter service is running

Vulnerability Assessment Details

The alerter service is running

Vulnerability Assessment Summary
Searches for the existence of the alerter service

Detailed Explanation for this Vulnerability Assessment

The alerter service is running. This service permits
NT users to send pop-ups messages to each others.

This service can be abused by a possible hacker who can
trick valid users into doing some actions that may
harm their accounts or your network (social
engineering attack)

Solution : Disable this service.

Network Security Threat Level: Low

How to disable this service under NT 4 :
- open the 'Services' control panel
- select the 'Alerter' service, and click 'Stop'
- click on 'Startup...' and change to radio button of the
field 'Startup Type' from 'Automatic' to 'Disabled'

Under Windows 2000 :
- open the 'Administration tools' control panel
- open the 'Services' item in it
- double click on the 'Alerter' service
- click on 'stop'
- change the drop-down menu value from the field 'Startup Type'
from 'Automatic' to 'Disabled'

Networks Security ID:

Vulnerability Assessment Copyright: This script is Copyright (C) 2000 Renaud Deraison

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