Four very newly discovered, and important Windows vulnerabilities from a Chinese security firm. (#1, #2, #3, and #4 below). Microsoft hasn't issued patches, so use the workarounds. Starting next week, @RISK will be delivered on Friday mornings to give you time before the weekend to be sure you have blocked the most critical vulnerabilities. Training News: Win one of four Apple iPods by registering for the big Orlando security and audit training conference by December 31. ( 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).
****************Sponsored by SANS Orlando 2005***************************
Fourteen immersion training tracks for managers, auditors, sysadmins, security professionals and for those seeking to pass the ISC2 CISSP exam. The best teachers in security, in Florida, when it is cold in the north and Europe. Plan to bring the family along for a weekend at Disney World. Conference and registration details: http://www.sans.org/orlando05
************************** SPONSORED LINKS ******************************
Privacy notice: Sponsored links redirect to non-SANS web pages. #1 Industry experts and regulatory organizations define best practices for managing log data - FREE whitepaper: http://www.sans.org/info.php?id=692
*************************************************************************
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: This vulnerability in the HTML Help ActiveX Control can be used to completely compromise a Windows client. An attacker can exploit the flaw by constructing a malicious webpage or an HTML email. Browsing the webpage or opening the email is sufficient for the client compromise i.e. no further user interaction is required. The problem occurs because it is possible to inject JavaScript code in the HTML Help ActiveX control's parameters. By forcing the control to open a local file, it is then possible to execute the JavaScript code in the context of the "Local Computer" zone. Technical details and a proof-of-concept exploit have been publicly posted. The PoC exploit, when run on Windows XP SP2, creates "Microsoft Office.hta" file in the "Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" directory.
Status: Microsoft not confirmed, no patches available. A workaround is to disable "Active Scripting" in Internet Explorer.
Council Site Actions: Due to holidays and the late-breaking nature of the issues, we were unable to solicit any council site responses.
Description: USER32 library contains Windows API functions for user interface handling. The "LoadImage" function is responsible for handling files such as icons, cursors, animated cursors and bitmaps. The "LoadImage" function reportedly contains a heap-based buffer overflow that can be triggered by a specially crafted icon, cursor or a bitmap file. The problem occurs because the declared image size is not checked prior to opening the image. The flaw may be able to be exploited to execute arbitrary code on the client. To exploit the flaw, an attacker can take any of the following actions: (a) Create a webpage containing a malicious .ico, .bmp, .ani or .cur file, and entice an attacker to visit his webpage. (b) Send an HTML email containing the malicious .ico, .bmp, .ani or .cur file. (c) Create a shared folder containing the malicious .ico, .bmp, .ani or .cur file, and entice a user to browse his shared folder. The technical details and exploit code have been publicly posted.
Status: Microsoft not confirmed, no patches available. XP SP2 is reportedly not vulnerable.
Council Site Actions: Due to holidays and the late-breaking nature of the issues, we were unable to solicit any council site responses.
Description: Winhlp32.exe application is responsible for handling Windows Help (".hlp") files. This application reportedly contains a heap-based buffer overflow and integer overflow vulnerability. A specially crafted ".hlp" file may exploit these flaws to execute arbitrary code on the client system with the privileges of the logged-on user. Note that Windows prompts a user before downloading and opening a ".hlp" file. Hence, to exploit the flaw via a hyperlink or frame pointing to the malicious .hlp file will require user interaction. However, it may also be possible to invoke Winhlp32.exe via the HTML Help ActiveX Control, and exploit the flaw without any user interaction (not confirmed). The technical details and proof-of-concept exploits have been publicly posted.
Status: Microsoft not confirmed, no patches available. Users should not open .hlp files downloaded from untrusted sources.
Council Site Actions: Due to holidays and the late-breaking nature of the issues, we were unable to solicit any council site responses.
Description: This Internet Explorer (IE) vulnerability allows an attacker to trick a victim into visiting a malicious site. The attack occurs when a victim clicks a link supplied by the attacker in an email or on a webpage, which according to IE's address bar points to a trusted site. However, the attacker can manipulate all the contents of the trusted site's webpage. Hence, any information entered by the user on such a page can be stolen by the attacker (phishing attacks). The problem occurs due to a flaw in IE's DHTML Edit ActiveX control. The control's "execScript" function does not sufficiently validate a window's domain prior to executing a script. The attacker can leverage the flaw in the execScript function to re-write the contents of a trusted site's webpage. Note that the attacker can also spoof the content for secure sites by exploiting this vulnerability as IE shows a "Lock" icon on the bottom right-hand corner on a spoofed webpage.
Status: Microsoft not confirmed, no updates available. An option is to disable ActiveX controls. However, that may downgrade the users' web browsing experience. The users should be advised to type the web addresses of sensitive sites such as banks etc. and not to open links to secure sites embedded in another page or an email.
Council Site Actions: All council sites are awaiting confirmation from the vendor and a patch. They plan to patch during the regular system update process. One site commented that they consider IE vulnerabilities a level 4 on a scale from 1 to 5 for servers and a level 5 on a workstation. Thus, this is not a priority to patch for them. Another site is still investigating replacing IE with Firefox as a long term strategy move.
Description: NGSSoftware has released complete technical details for the vulnerabilities in a number of Oracle products that include - Oracle9i Database Server, Oracle8i Database Server, Oracle Database 10g, Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 10g, Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control 10g, Oracle Application Server 10g, Oracle9i Application Server, Oracle Collaboration Suite and Oracle E-Business Suite 11i. Oracle's security alert #68 released on August 31, 2004 contains the patches. Oracle administrators, who have not yet patched their systems, should apply the patches as soon as possible.
Description: NGSSoftware has released complete technical details for the vulnerabilities in IBM DB2 version 8.1 Fixpak 6 and prior, and IBM DB2 version 7.x Fixpak 11 and prior. The DB2 administrators, who have not yet upgraded their databases, should apply the patches as soon as possible.
Description: Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise contains three vulnerabilities. The discoverers of the flaw have rated these vulnerabilities as "High Risk". Other advisories with a similar rating from the discoverers have included overflows that require minimal user privileges or flaws that can be exploited by remote unauthenticated attackers. Hence, although the @RISK rating for this item is currently "MODERATE" due to lack of any more information, the Sybase administrators should apply the patches on a priority basis. The technical details regarding the flaws are scheduled to be disclosed after 3 months.
Status: Vendor confirmed, upgrade to version 12.5.3.
Council Site Actions: The affected software is not in production or widespread use, or is not officially supported at any of the council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: MPlayer, a Linux movie player, contains multiple buffer overflow vulnerabilities. The flaws can be triggered by crafting malicious movie files. An attacker can exploit these flaws, by enticing a client to visit a webpage or click a link in an email, to execute arbitrary code on the client system. The technical details required to leverage the flaws have been posted.
Status: Vendor has confirmed the flaws reported by iDefense and found another 2 flaws during the code review. All these flaws have been fixed in the new version 1.0pre5try2.
Council Site Actions: The affected software is not in production or widespread use, or is not officially supported at any of the council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: This worm attacks websites using the phpBB bulletin board software by exploiting recently reported command execution vulnerability in the bulletin board's "viewtopic" script. Upon a successful attack, the worm defaces the website and overwrites the files with the following extensions-.asp, .php. .htm. .jsp, .phtm and .shtm. The worm code has been publicly posted and hence can be potentially modified. Sites using phpBB should immediately upgrade to version 2.0.11.
Council Site Actions: The affected software is not in production or widespread use, or is not officially supported at any of the council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: Webmin provides a web interface to perform system administration for UNIX systems. The program is available for many flavors of Unix and Linux OS. A script, that can reportedly perform brute force password guessing for administrator account, has been publicly posted. A workaround is to select the 'Enable password timeouts' in Webmin configuration.
Council Site Actions: Due to holidays and the late-breaking nature of the issues we were unable to solicit any council site responses.
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 3965 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 thisnewsletter, including any external links, is provided "AS IS," with noexpress or implied warranty, for informational purposes only. In somecases, copyright for material in this newsletter may be held by a partyother than Qualys (as indicated herein) and permission to use suchmaterial must be requested from the copyright owner.
==end==
Subscriptions: @RISK is distributed free of charge to peopleresponsible for managing and securing information systems and networks.You may forward this newsletter to others with such responsibilityinside or outside your organization.
To subscribe, at no cost, go to https://portal.sans.org where you mayalso 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.