The critical, exploited vulnerability in the widely-used Snort intrusion detection software deserves rapid patching (#1). SANS Internet Storm Center (isc.sans.org) has deep analysis and previews of useful defensive tools. Oracle users also have an important patch to install (#2). Several important new exploits are circulating attacking widely used software (#8, #9, #10).
Alan
@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).
*********************** Security Training Update ************************
Baltimore, Amsterdam, and San Diego are all hosting large SANS security training conferences. Plus smaller programs in a dozen other cities. http://www.sans/org
And if you know anyone who is developing web applications, please give them a heads-up about the extraordinary new program on "Developing Secure Web Applications" in Baltimore. SANS vulnerability data show that the hackers have increased their targeting of web applications to compensate for security improvements in the underlying operating system. Developers who can write secure applications are in heavy demand.
http://www.sans.org/webapp_baltimore
Secure Web Development is also available for onsite training if you have 20 or more developers. Email info@sans.org with subject Secure Web development Onsite to explore that option.
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Part I is compiled by Rohit Dhamankar at TippingPoint, a division of 3Com, 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: Snort is a popular open-source intrusion detection and prevention system. Snort uses "preprocessors" to perform protocol decoding before the Snort detection engine is invoked. The preprocessor "bo" is used to detect traffic related to the Back Orifice backdoor. This preprocessor contains a stack-based buffer overflow that can be triggered by a specially crafted UDP packet (Back Orifice ping). The overflow can be exploited to execute arbitrary code on the Snort system with the same privileges used to run Snort, usually "root/SYSTEM". Injecting the malicious UDP packet in a network being protected by Snort is sufficient to exploit this overflow. Further, the UDP packet can be spoofed and have any source/destination ports, which may lead to bypassing firewalls. Exploit code has been posted.
Status: Vendor confirmed; version 2.4.3 has been released to address this issue. A workaround is to comment out the line "preprocessor bo" in snort.conf and restart snort. The workaround, however, will leave the network open to Back Orifice attacks, and should be used only if the fixed version cannot be installed. Please also check for updates for any third party products that use snort. The CERT Vulnerability Note can be used to track third party products that are vulnerable because they rely on Snort. At this time, Nortel Threat Protection System is reported to be vulnerable.
Council Site Actions: Most of the reporting council sites are running the affected software and have already patched their systems.
Description: Oracle has released its critical patch update for multiple Oracle products including Database Server, application server, e-business suite, Collaboration Suite, Enterprise Manager and Peoplesoft products. The patch addresses more than 80 vulnerabilities ranging from PL/SQL injections to buffer overflows. According to NGSSoftware, one of the seven discoverers for the flaws patched in this update, some the flaws can be exploited to completely compromise the database server. The technical details for the flaws have not been posted yet.
Council Site Actions: Many reporting council sites are using the affected software. Several of the sites are in the process of investigating the updates and doing regression testing. Others plan to patch during their next maintenance cycle.
Description: GFi MailSecurity uses multiple virus scanning engines to scan emails for viruses, Trojans, spyware and malicious attachments. The product can be used as an SMTP gateway or integrates with Exchange 2000/2003 server. The product offers a web interface for configuration and managing quarantine emails. This web interface contains a buffer overflow that can be triggered by overlong HTTP headers. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit the overflow to execute arbitrary code on the mail server with SYSTEM privileges. Note that this product is likely to be deployed in an enterprise DMZ. Hence, successful exploitation grants an attacker a foothold in the DMZ for launching further attacks.
Status: Vendor confirmed; updates available.
Council Site Actions: The affected software and/or configuration are not in production or widespread use, or are not officially supported at any of the council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: WebGUI and MySource, two content management systems, contain vulnerabilities that may be exploited to execute arbitrary code on the servers running these packages. The problems in MySource arise from lack of sanitization of user-supplied input that results in local and remote file-include vulnerabilities. Note that some Fortune 500 companies reportedly use these software packages.
Status: WebGUI and MySource have released versions 6.7.6 and 2.14.2 respectively to fix the flaws.
Council Site Actions: The affected software and/or configuration are not in production or widespread use, or are not officially supported at any of the council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: Novell Netmail, an e-mail and calendaring system, uses NMAP (Network Messaging Application Protocol) agent for handling delivery of a message to a user's mailbox. This agent contains a stack-based overflow that can be triggered by an overlong "USER" command. The flaw can be exploited to execute arbitrary code on the Netmail server. Note that the overflow requires prior authentication. However, if the default password for NMAP agent has not been changed, an attacker can easily exploit this flaw.
Status: Vendor confirmed; upgrade to version 3.52d. Changing the default NMAP credential is advised. Another workaround is to block port 689/tcp at the network perimeter.
Council Site Actions: The affected software and/or configuration are not in production or widespread use, or are not officially supported at any of the council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: The AhnLab family of products is designed to protect desktops and servers from various viruses. These products contain buffer overflows in processing ALZ, XXE and UUE archives. The overflows are triggered by the affected archive formats containing large filenames. If compressed file scanning is enabled, this overflow can be exploited to execute arbitrary code on the systems running Ahnlab products.
Status: Vendor confirmed; updates available.
Council Site Actions: The affected software and/or configuration are not in production or widespread use, or are not officially supported at any of the council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: OpenWBEM is an open source implementation of Web-based enterprise management (WBEM) standard that aims to unify management of networks, user applications and systems across various vendors. During a security audit of this software several overflows were discovered. These flaws can be exploited to execute arbitrary code with "root" privileges. Limited technical details about the vulnerabilities have been posted. Note that SuSE and Apple Remote Desktop use OpenWBEM.
Status: SuSE Linux has provided fixed packages.
Council Site Actions: The affected software and/or configuration are not in production or widespread use, or are not officially supported at any of the council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Council Site Actions: The affected software and/or configuration are not in production or widespread use, or are not officially supported at any of the council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Council Site Actions: Only one council site is using the affected software. They are currently investigating with their Windows support group on the appropriate action. The related traffic is blocked at their network perimeter points.
Council Site Actions: The affected software and/or configuration are not in production or widespread use, or are not officially supported at any of the council sites. 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 4587 unique vulnerabilities. For this special SANS community listing, Qualys also includes vulnerabilities that cannot be scanned remotely.
(c) 2005. 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.
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