This week has seen the greatest number of new vulnerabilities since @RISK started more than three years ago. Normally we tell you about one or two in this opening paragraph, but there are simply too many important new vulnerabilities this week. Alan PS. To win one of four new iPods, registering for SANS big Orlando Training Program by December 31. It is in early February and has 14 immersion tracks. The drawing for iPods will be on January 1. Conference and registration details: http://www.sans.org/orlando05
@RISK is the SANS community's consensus bulletin summarizing the most important vulnerabilities and exploits identified during the past week and providing guidance on appropriate actions to protect your systems (PART I). It also includes a comprehensive list of all new vulnerabilities discovered in the past week (PART II).
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Part I is compiled by the security team at TippingPoint (www.tippingpoint.com) as a by-product of that company's continuous effort to ensure that its intrusion prevention products effectively block exploits using known vulnerabilities. TippingPoint's analysis is complemented by input from a council of security managers from twelve large organizations who confidentially share with SANS the specific actions they have taken to protect their systems. A detailed description of the process may be found at http://www.sans.org/newsletters/cva/#process
Description: Microsoft Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) providesa mapping between IP addresses and NETBIOS names. The replicationservice provided by the WINS can be used to replicate the WINS databaseamongst multiple WINS servers. The replication service, which runs onport 42/tcp, contains a buffer overflow in its computer name validationroutine. An attacker can exploit the buffer overflow to executearbitrary code with "SYSTEM" privileges on the vulnerable server.Exploit code is available for the users of CORE Impact and ImmunitysecCanvas products. Note that WINS service is not installed by default onWindows NT/2000/2003 servers with the exception of the Small Businessserver. However, WINS running on domain controllers (a likelyconfiguration) may result in compromising an entire Windows domain.Scans for port 42/tcp have been reported in the wild.
Status: Apply the patch contained in the Microsoft Security BulletinMS04-045 that was released on December 14, 2004. This update also fixesanother CRITICAL code execution flaw reported in a previous @RISKnewsletter. A workaround is to block the ports 42/tcp and 42/udp at thenetwork perimeter. Another workaround is to configure the WINS serversto use IPsec for database replication.
Council Site Actions: All of the reporting council sites are respondingto this item. Most plan to deploy the patch during their next regularlyscheduled system update process. Several sites have patching underwayas of this past weekend.
Description: Microsoft DHCP server included in Windows NT contains abuffer overflow vulnerability that can be triggered by a speciallycrafted DHCP request. The flaw can be exploited to execute arbitrarycode with "SYSTEM" privileges. No technical details about how toconstruct the malicious DHCP request have been publicly posted. Notethat the service is not turned on by default on the NT servers.
Status: Apply the patch contained in the Microsoft Security BulletinMS04-042 that was released on December 14, 2004. A workaround is toblock the ports 67/udp and 68/udp at the network perimeter.
Council Site Actions: Three of the reporting council sites are usingthe affected software. One site is patching this weekend and the othertwo sites plan to patch during their next regularly scheduled systemupdate process.
Description: Samba is the UNIX server standard for providingSMB/CIFS-based file and print services. Samba server contains an integeroverflow vulnerability that can be triggered by a request to open afile, if the request contains a large number of "security descriptors".The flaw can be exploited by an authenticated user to corrupt heapmemory in a controllable fashion, and execute arbitrary code on theserver with the privileges of smbd (typically root). Note that ifanonymous users are allowed to access any files, the flaw may beexploited by an unauthenticated attacker. The technical details requiredto leverage the flaw have been publicly posted.
Status: Samba team has released version 3.0.10. Multiple Linux vendorssuch as RedHat, Gentoo, OpenPKG have also released updates.
Council Site Actions: Four of the reporting council sites are using theaffected software. Three of these sites will deploy the patches duringtheir next regularly scheduled system update process. The final sitenotified their Samba users and instructed them to upgrade. Several ofthese sites are waiting on patches from Sun and HP, as well. Also, theaffected ports are typically blocked at network perimeter securitycontrol points.
Description: PHP, a popularly used language for web development, isreportedly installed on 50% of the Apache servers used world-wide. PHPcontains multiple vulnerabilities that may be exploited to executearbitrary code on a webserver. The most likely target of an attack wouldbe PHP scripts that invoke "unserialize()" function. A proof-of-conceptstring that will result in arbitrary code execution when passed to the"unserialize()" function has been developed for AMD64 systems (notpublicly available). An exploit has also been publicly posted. It isimportant to note that popularly used PHP bulletin boards such as phpBB,vBulletin, Invision Board reportedly contain scripts that arevulnerable.
Status: Vendor confirmed, upgrade to versions 4.3.10 or 5.0.3.
Council Site Actions: Only two of the reporting council sites are usingthe affected software and only on a limited basis. One site has notifiedtheir users and they are in the process of patching. The other site hasverified their supported systems running the affected software do nothave any scripts that have been identified as vulnerable. On theirremaining systems they have not yet tried to determine how many have ascript that invokes "unserialize()". The PHP bulletin boards that use"unserialize()" are, as far as they know, not in use at their site.Their Linux systems will, for the most part, obtain vendor patches asthey are released. A few of their systems were already updated to 4.3.10because waiting for the vendor patch was considered undesirable in thesecases.
Description: Adobe Acrobat Reader contains the following vulnerabilitiesthat may be exploited to execute arbitrary code on a client system. (1)The Adobe reader contains a format string vulnerability. The flaw canbe triggered by the "title" or "baseurl" fields containing format stringcharacters such as "%x" in a ".etd" file. The ".etd" file is associatedwith eBook transactions. (2) The Adobe Acrobat Reader for UNIX containsa buffer overflow in the function which checks if an input file is anemail message. An attacker can exploit these flaws by hosting themalicious files on a webserver/shared folder or sending the files as anemail attachment.
Status: Adobe confirmed. Versions 6.03 and 5.10 have been released.
Council Site Actions: All of the reporting council sites are respondingto this item. Most of them plan to deploy the patch during their nextregularly scheduled system update process. One site is still evaluatingneeded actions. The final site distributes version 6.0, and provideslocal support for their users. When a non-vulnerable version isavailable, they will update their local distribution point and this willhelp to address the vulnerability for new Windows installations and forexisting installations when a user chooses to manually update. Forexisting installations they plan to use Adobe's built-in updatefunctionality as their primary method for updates.
Description: Microsoft HyperTerminal application can be used to connectto other computers via modem, COM ports or telnet protocol. Theapplication allows users to save session information in a file with a".ht" extension. HyperTerminal contains a heap-based buffer overflowthat can be triggered by a specially crafted ".ht" file. The overflowcan be exploited to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of thecurrently logged-on user. In order to exploit this vulnerability, anattacker can take any of the following actions:
(a) Host the malicious .ht file on his webserver and entice a user tovisit his webpage.
(b) Send the malicious .ht file as an email attachment.
(c) Host the malicious .ht file on his shared folder and entice a userto browse the shared folder.Note that in all the above scenarios, if HyperTerminal is not set as thedefault telnet client (a default setting) a user is prompted beforeopening the .ht file. Hence, this vulnerability cannot be exploitedwithout user interaction. The technical details that can be used toconstruct a malicious .ht file have been publicly posted.
Status: Apply the patch contained in the Microsoft Security BulletinMS04-043 that was released on December 14, 2004. Users should be advisednot to open any .ht files posted on websites or attached in emails.
Council Site Actions: All of the reporting council sites are respondingto this item. Most plan to deploy the patch during their next regularlyscheduled system update process. Several sites have patching underwayas of this past weekend.
Description: Microsoft Word for Windows Converter converts documentsfrom Microsoft Word to WordPad format. This converter contains twobuffer overflow vulnerabilities that can be triggered by a speciallycrafted WordPad file. The overflows can be exploited to executearbitrary code on a client with the privileges of the currentlylogged-on user. WordPad opens files with ".wri" extension by default,and when Microsoft Word is not installed also opens files with ".rtf"and ".doc" extensions. Hence, in order to exploit the flaws, an attackercan take any of the following actions:
(a) Host the malicious .wri/.rtf/.doc file on his webserver and enticea user to visit his webpage.
(b) Send the malicious .wri/.rtf/.doc file as an email attachment.
(c) Host the malicious .wri/.rtf/.doc file on his shared folder andentice a user to browse the shared folder.Note that the user would be prompted prior to converting the fileformat. Hence, the flaws can be exploited only with user interaction.The technical details regarding one of the overflows have been publiclyposted.
Status: Apply the patch contained in the Microsoft Security BulletinMS04-041 that was released on December 14, 2004. Users should be advisednot to convert untrusted files to WordPad format.
Council Site Actions: All of the reporting council sites are respondingto this item. Most plan to deploy the patch during their next regularlyscheduled system update process. Several sites have patching underwayas of this past weekend.
Description: Veritas Backup Exec is a backup and restore solution forWindows server environment. The benetns.exe service running on thebackup server allows the backup engine to discover the end systems thatare running a backup agent. This service contains a stack-based bufferoverflow that can be triggered by specially crafted registrationrequests. The problem arises when processing client registrationrequests containing an overlong hostname. The flaw can be exploited toexecute arbitrary code with the privileges of the benetns.exe process,possibly domain administrator.
Status: Veritas confirmed, hot fixes available. A workaround is to blockthe TCP port used by benetns.exe process at the network perimeter.
Council Site Actions: Three of the reporting council sites are usingthe affected software. One site is still investigating to determinewhether they have any benetns.exe processes set up to execute withdomain-administrator credentials. The other two sites plan to patchduring their next regularly scheduled system update process.
Description: The following Cisco products have an account with maximumprivileges on the device/software that has a default password: CiscoGuard, Cisco Traffic Anomaly Detector, Cisco Unity integrated withExchange. An attacker may obtain an administrative control of thedevices/software via the default password.
Status: Cisco has released or will release fixed versions of thesoftware. Users of the above products should ensure that passwords havebeen manually reset for all default accounts.
Council Site Actions: Two of the reporting council sites are using theaffected software. One site is still investigating to determinepotential impact of configuration changes. The other site only has theproducts in the staging process and not in production yet. They planto investigate and resolve the issue before these products are placedin production.
Description: Novell has reported that NetMail IMAP daemon contains abuffer overflow that can be exploited via "101_mEna" script. A scriptwith the same name posted on the Internet exploits a buffer overflowvulnerability in the Mercury mail IMAP server. Hence, it is possiblethat the same flaw exists in NetMail IMAP daemon i.e. parsing commandstrings over 8198 bytes. The flaw may be exploited by an unauthenticatedattacker to execute arbitrary code on the server.
Status: Novell reported the flaw, and has provided a fix.
Council Site Actions: The affected software is not in production orwidespread use, or is not officially supported at any of the councilsites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: The Attachment Mod module adds the ability to attach filesto the messages posted to any phpBB bulletin board. This module containsa directory traversal vulnerability that allows a user to upload filesin other directories on the bulletin board server. The directorytraversal may be used to upload malicious PHP files, and executearbitrary PHP code with the privileges of the web server. The postedadvisory shows how to exploit the flaw.
Status: Vendor confirmed, upgrade to version 2.3.11.
Council Site Actions: The affected software is not in production orwidespread use, or is not officially supported at any of the councilsites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: phpMyAdmin is a PHP-based tool widely used to administerMySQL databases via HTTP. The phpMyAdmin MIME-based transformations areused to display the contents of a SQL column in any chosen format whenviewed in the PhpMyAdmin browsing mode. When these "external"transformations are configured, and the PHP safe mode is off (not atypical configuration), phpMyAdmin contains a vulnerability that may beexploited to execute arbitrary commands. The problem occurs because theuser-input is not sanitized for shell meta-characters. The postedadvisory shows how to craft the malicious request to leverage the flaw.
Status: Vendor confirmed, version 2.6.1-rc1 fixes the flaw.
Council Site Actions: The affected software is not in production orwidespread use, or is not officially supported at any of the councilsites. They reported that no action was necessary.
This list is compiled by Qualys ( www.qualys.com ) as part of that company's ongoing effort to ensure its vulnerability management web service tests for all known vulnerabilities that can be scanned. As of this week Qualys scans for 3960 unique vulnerabilities. For this special SANS community listing, Qualys also includes vulnerabilities that cannot be scanned remotely.
(c) 2004. All rights reserved. The information contained in this newsletter, including any external links, is provided "AS IS," with no express or implied warranty, for informational purposes only. In some cases, copyright for material in this newsletter may be held by a party other than Qualys (as indicated herein) and permission to use such material must be requested from the copyright owner. ==end== Subscriptions: @RISK is distributed free of charge to people responsible for managing and securing information systems and networks. You may forward this newsletter to others with such responsibility inside or outside your organization. To subscribe, at no cost, go to https://portal.sans.org where you may also request subscriptions to any of SANS other free newsletters. To change your subscription, address, or other information, visit http://portal.sans.org Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. No posting or reuse allowed, other that listed above, without prior written permission.