Microsoft's critical vulnerabilities (#1-#3) head the list this week, but organizations that use Symantec's Veritas NetBackup (#4) or Sophos Anti-virus (#5) should deal with those flaws very soon, as well. Also, Symantec users should go back and check to be sure they installed the patch that blocks the Big Yellow/Sagevo worm. The patch was released in May, but apparently many some sites did not apply it.
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).
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Part I for this issue has been compiled by Rob King and 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: A new remote code execution has been discovered in Microsoft Word. This flaw is distinct from the two reported in the last issue of @RISK (see below). A specially-crafted Word document could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Note that Word documents do not open without prompting on all versions of Word after Word 2000. A proof-of-concept for this vulnerability is publicly available.
Status: Microsoft has not confirmed, no updates available. Council Site actions: All of the reporting council sites are waiting on an update and confirmation from Microsoft. Several sites have issued warnings to their users regarding the receipt of unsolicited or unexpected Word documents, especially from unknown sources.
Description: Microsoft Internet Explorer contains multiple vulnerabilities: (1) Failure to properly handle memory when executing certain scripts and DHTML functions can result in memory corruption. A specially-crafted script or DHTML document could exploit these vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. (2) Flaws in the handling of drag-and-drop events and OBJECT tags can lead to disclosure of arbitrary files in the current user's Temporary Internet Files directory. This directory is used to store information about a user's browsing history and other browser-related information. User interaction beyond viewing the page is required to exploit these information disclosure vulnerabilities.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: All council sites are responding to this vulnerability. They have either already started the deployment process or plan to deploy the update during their next regularly scheduled maintenance window.
Description: The Microsoft Windows Media Format Runtime, used to play Windows Media formatted data by many applications, including Windows Media Player, contains two buffer overflow vulnerabilities. Failure to properly handle malformed Advanced Systems Format (ASF) and Advanced Stream Redirector (ASX) files can lead to buffer overflows. An attacker could exploit these buffer overflows to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Note that ASF and ASX files are opened without prompting by default. The ASX vulnerability was reported in a previous edition of @RISK.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: All council sites are responding to this vulnerability. They have either already started the update deployment process or plan to deploy the update during their next regularly scheduled maintenance window.
Description: Symantec Veritas NetBackup contains multiple vulnerabilities. Failures in handling an overlong "CONNECT_OPTIONS" command and overall command length can lead to buffer overflows in the "bpcd.exe" process. Additionally, the "bpcd.exe" process fails to validate the logic of incoming commands. These vulnerabilities could be exploited to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the "bpcd.exe" process, which runs with SYSTEM privileges by default.
Status: Symantec confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: One of the responding council sites is using the affected software; they are verifying the impact to their environment.
Description: Sophos Anti-Virus contains multiple buffer overflows in parsing CPIO and SIT archives. CPIO is a common archive format used primarily on Unix and Unix-like systems, and SIT is a common archive format used primarily on Apple Macintosh systems. A specially-crafted CPIO or SIT archive scanned by Sophos could exploit these buffer overflows and execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the scanning process. Some technical details for these vulnerabilities are publicly available.
Status: Sophos confirmed, updates available.
Description: A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the WMI Object Broker ActiveX control included with certain versions of Microsoft Visual Studio. A web page that instantiates this control could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user by escaping the normal restrictions of the "Internet" security zone normally enforced on ActiveX controls instantiated by web pages. Users can mitigate the impact of this vulnerability by disabling the vulnerable control via Microsoft's "kill bit" mechanism for CLSID "7F5B7F63-F06F-4331-8A26-339E03C0AE3D". It is believed that this vulnerability is related to or the same as one discussed in an earlier edition of @RISK. That vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: Most of the reporting council sites are responding to this vulnerability. They have either already started the deployment process or plan to deploy the update during their next regularly scheduled maintenance window.
Description: The Microsoft SNMP service, used to manage Microsoft Windows systems via the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) contains a memory corruption vulnerability. By sending a specially SNMP request to the affected system, an attacker could exploit this vulnerability and execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges. Note that the Microsoft SNMP service is not installed by default. Users are advised to block UDP port 161 at the network perimeter if possible, and use secure SNMP community strings. A working exploit is available to members of Immunity Security's partners program.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: Most of the reporting council sites are responding to this vulnerability. They have either already started the deployment process or plan to deploy the update during their next regularly scheduled maintenance window.
Description: Microsoft Outlook Express contains a buffer overflow vulnerability in the processing of Windows Address Book (WAB) files. These files are used to store addresses and other contact information. A specially-crafted WAB file could exploit this vulnerability and execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Note that WAB files are generally not configured to open without prompting.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: Most of the reporting council sites are responding to this vulnerability. They have either already started the deployment process or plan to deploy the update during their next regularly scheduled maintenance window.
Description: The Microsoft Remote Installation Service, used to perform remote installations of the Windows operating system and other system components, contains an insecure file access configuration vulnerability. The directory storing the installable files is writable by default via the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP). An unauthenticated attacker could upload a malicious file to this directory via TFTP; this file would be subsequently installed on systems that use the Remote Installation Service. Note that systems would need to be configured to download the malicious file to be affected. Users are advised to block UDP port 69 at the network perimeter, if possible.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: Only two of the reporting council sites are using the affect software. They plan to distribute the patch during their next regularly scheduled maintenance window.
Description: Multiple BitDefender products are vulnerable to an integer overflow in parsing packed PE (Portable Executable) files. Portable Executable files are the standard executable format on Microsoft Windows systems. Failure to properly handle certain malformed packed PE files can lead to an integer overflow and arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the scanning process.
Status: BitDefender confirmed, updates available. According to BitDefender's website, the update was distributed immediately via BitDefender's automatic update system, and no user interaction is required to install the update.
Description: eEye researchers have discovered a new worm that is exploiting a buffer overflow vulnerability in the Symantec Antivirus and Client Security software. The overflow being exploited by the Big Yellow/Sagevo worm was patched by Symantec in May 2006. Enterprises using Symantec AV or Client Security software should apply the patch immediately if they have not done so already. In addition, blocking access to the port 2967/tcp at the network perimeter will prevent any attacks originating from the Internet.
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 5308 unique vulnerabilities. For this special SANS community listing, Qualys also includes vulnerabilities that cannot be scanned remotely.
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