A big week for media file vulnerabilities: Rapid remediation is needed for both Internet Explorer users and Firefox users (#1, #2, #3, and a few more). The Winamp vulnerability does not yet have a patch; see #4 below for a work around.
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).
"What is The Real Threat to SCADA and PCS Systems?" --Wednesday, February 22 at 1:00 PM EST (1800 UTC/GMT) -- http://www.sans.org/info.php?id=1032
SCADA and process control systems manage nuclear power plants, manufacturing plants, railroads, pipelines and many other important parts of the critical infrastructure. Join us for this unique SANS web cast that will show you where control systems are vulnerable, how exploitation techniques are changing, and what can you do about it. The webcast is being provided primarily for the 390 people coming to the SCADA Security Summit on March 1-3 ( http://www.sans.org/scadasummit06) But we have opened it up to all @RISK readers, too. Register an sign on early to be sure of getting connected. http://www.sans.org/info.php?id=1032
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Other Software Items 06.7.21, 06.7.49, 06.7.84 from Part II
Note: The number of web application vulnerabilities, such as file include, SQL injection and others, has sky rocketed in the last few years. To keep Part I of @RISK to a manageable size, we limit part I coverage to critical vulnerabilities in widely-deployed web packages such as phpBB. If you use less widely-deployed web applications, please be sure to review part II to find their vulnerabilities.
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1) Enhance security and reduce IT cost with "Efficient Event Management" - listen to this webinar today! http://www.sans.org/info.php?id=1033
2) WhatWorks in Intrusion Prevention Systems: "Monitoring Unique Traffic with Retail Decisions" Tuesday, February 21 at 1:00 PM EST (1800 UTC/GMT) http://www.sans.org/info.php?id=1034
3) SANS Tool Talk Webcast: "How to Create and Audit Defensible Security Compliance Controls" Thursday, February 23 at 1:00 PM EST (1800 UTC/GMT) http://www.sans.org/info.php?id=1035
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Part I for this issue has been compiled by Rohit Dhamankar and Rob King 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: Windows Media Player contains a heap-based buffer overflow that can be triggered by a specially crafted bitmap(BMP) file. The problem arises because Windows Media Player does not properly process a bitmap file that declares its size as 0 bytes. In this case, the Media Player allocates 0 bytes of heap memory prior to copying the file into heap memory. Hence, a malicious bitmap file can execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the logged-on user. The bitmap file can be embedded in any media format such as ".asx" or ".wmv" or media player skin file. Such a media or skin file can then be posted on a web page, a shared folder or a peer-to-peer file share. Windows systems having Windows Media Player as their default media player are at greatest risk from this vulnerability. Exploit code has been publicly posted.
Status: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-005 contains the patch as well as workarounds to mitigate this vulnerability.
Council Site Actions: All reporting council sites are in the process of responding to this item. Some are rolling out the patches on an expedited basis, and some during their next regularly scheduled system update process. One site commented they were patching workstations and Citrix servers on an expedited basis, but non-Citrix servers on a standard scheduled. One site is using the automated Update feature from Microsoft, and thus the patches are already installed. Many of the sites also have gateway anti-virus for both web and mail.
Description: Microsoft has released a cumulative patch MS06-004 for Internet Explorer that fixes another WMF file handling vulnerability. This flaw was discussed in the last issue of the @RISK newsletter. As a general security practice Internet Explorer should be upgraded to the latest available version.
Council Site Actions: All reporting council sites are in the process of responding to this item. Some are rolling out the patches on an expedited basis, and some during their next regularly scheduled system update process. One site commented they were patching workstations and Citrix servers on an expedited basis, but non-Citrix servers on a standard schedule. One site is using the automated Updates feature from Microsoft and thus the patches are already installed. Many of the sites also have gateway anti-virus for both web and mail.
Description: Windows Media Player plug-in component is automatically installed when the Media player is installed. Popularly used browsers as alternatives to Internet Explorer such as Firefox and Netscape can detect this plug-in, and open files associated with Windows media player automatically. This plug-in contains a stack-based buffer overflow when launched by browsers other than Internet Explorer. The overflow is triggered by an HTML page containing an "EMBED" tag with an overlong "SRC" attribute. The flaw can be exploited to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the logged-on user. Exploit code has been publicly posted. Enterprises with Firefox installations should apply this patch on a priority basis.
Status: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-006 contains the patch. A workaround is to disable the Windows Media Player plug-in in Firefox by visiting "Tools->Options->Downloads->Plug-ins" menu.
Council Site Actions: All reporting council sites are in the process of responding to this item. Some are rolling out the patches on an expedited basis, and some during their next regularly scheduled system update process. One site commented they were patching workstations and Citrix servers on an expedited basis, but non-Citrix servers on a standard scheduled. One site is using the automated Updates feature from Microsoft, and thus the patches are already installed. Many of the sites also have gateway anti-virus for both web and mail.
Description: Winamp, a popular media player, contains the following buffer overflows in handling certain playlist files i.e. files with ".m3u" or ".pls" extensions. (a) An overflow that can be triggered by a playlist file containing an overlong filename with ".wma" extension. (b) An overflow that can be triggered by a playlist file containing an overlong filename beginning with "cda://". (c) An overflow that can be triggered by an overlong name of ".m3u" file. A web page containing a malicious playlist file can exploit these vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code.
Status: No patch available from the vendor yet. Go to "Tools->Folder-Options->FileTypes" and remove Winamp as the default handler for "M3U" and "PLS" files. This will prevent a malicious web page from automatically launching Winamp.
Council Site Actions: The affected software is not officially supported at any of the reporting council sites. Several sites have advised their users to apply appropriate patches or remove it from their systems.
Description: IGMP protocol allows IP hosts to participate in multicasting. Windows XP and 2003, which support version 3 of the IGMP protocol, contain a DoS vulnerability that can be triggered by a specially crafted IGMP packet. A vulnerable Windows system will stop responding to any further requests after receiving such a packet. The technical details required to craft a malicious IGMP packet have not been posted yet.
Status: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-007 contains the patch as well as workarounds to mitigate this vulnerability.
Council Site Actions: The affected software is in use at a few of the reporting council sites. They plan to deploy the patches during their next regularly scheduled maintenance cycle. One site uses the automated Updates feature from Microsoft.
Description: The Web Client Service on Windows XP/2003 systems allows users to create and modify files on web servers via WebDAV protocol. The service can be reached via "DAV RPC SERVICE" named pipe on ports 139/tcp and 445/tcp. This service contains a flaw that can be exploited by authenticated users to execute arbitrary code. Note that this service is enabled by default on Windows XP, and if the "Guest" access is enabled the flaw can be exploited by any user. No technical details regarding how to trigger the vulnerability have been disclosed yet.
Status: Apply the update referenced in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-008. Block ports 139/tcp and 445/tcp at the network perimeter to prevent access to this service from the Internet.
Council Site Actions: The affected software is in use at a few of the reporting council sites. They plan to deploy the patches during their next regularly scheduled maintenance cycle. One site uses the automated Updates feature from Microsoft.
Description: This vulnerability in PowerPoint 2000 allows an attacker to access objects in the Temporary Internet Files folder on a client system. This folder contains objects like cookies that may be used by the attacker to obtain unauthorized access to websites visited by the logged-on user. In order to exploit this flaw, an attacker has to set up a web page containing a Powerpoint presentation and entice a victim to view this presentation. If the victim views the presentation using Internet Explorer, the attacker's script can read contents from the temporary internet files folder.
Status: Apply the update referenced in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-010.
Council Site Actions: Only a few of the council sites plan to address this issue. They plan to deploy the patches during their next regularly scheduled maintenance cycle. One site is using the automated Updates feature from Microsoft and the patches are already installed.
Description: (a) Another 0-day "drag and drop" vulnerability has been reported in Internet Explorer. A specially crafted HTML page can exploit this flaw to install malware on a client system. Exploitation proceeds as follows: The user is enticed to drag and drop an object from a Window opened by Internet Explorer. By carefully timing when the drag and drop operation is initiated, a malicious file object from the pop-under window of the original window can be dropped to a folder such as "SharedDocs" or "Scheduled Tasks" on the user's system. The probability of successful exploitation is believed to be low since the exploit vector critically depends on correctly timing the user's actions. A proof-of-concept exploit has been created but not publicly posted. Microsoft plans to fix this issue in a service pack and not a security bulletin unless further research shows that the remote compromise can be easily achieved. (b) Internet Explorer Javascript and VBscript engines contain a vulnerability that can be exploited to exhaust the process stack memory. Viewing a malicious web page, which exploits this flaw, crashes IE. Remote code execution may be possible but is believed to be difficult.
Status: A suggested workaround for the drag and drop issue is to set the kill bit for "Shell.Explorer" control. Note that the workaround will stop Internet Explorer from displaying any "folder" views for local/network file shares and web folders. Further details and the tool, which can be used to set this kill-bit, are available in the Securiteam Advisory. Microsoft has not acknowledged the DoS flaw in script engines.
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 4894 unique vulnerabilities. For this special SANS community listing, Qualys also includes vulnerabilities that cannot be scanned remotely.
(c) 2006. 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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