Microsoft Windows rises to the top of this week's list of vulnerable software with critical vulnerabilities in Secure Sockets, in Internet Explorer, and in Outlook Express. Also this week the total number of new vulnerabilities once again reached the century (100) mark in a single week. The vast majority of these vulnerabilities are in application software, not in systems software. If you need information on how to improve application security, see the new Software Security Institute site at www.sans-ssi.org, and try to attend the Application Security Summit in DC in August where lots of users will share the lessons they learned in building application security initiatives. http://www.sans.org/appsummit07/ 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: The Microsoft Windows Secure Channel (Schannel) subsystem is the Microsoft Windows implementation of the Internet-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols. These protocols are used for cryptographically secure communications across the Internet. This subsystem contains a flaw in the handling of cryptographic signatures. A specially-crafted signature sent by a server could trigger a remote code execution vulnerability. Any application utilizing the SSL or TLS protocols via the Schannel subsystem is potentially vulnerable; this includes Internet Explorer. This vulnerability could be exploited by a malicious web site. Full technical details for this vulnerability are publicly available.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available. Council Site Actions: All of the reporting council sites plan to distribute the updates during their next regularly schedule system maintenance cycle.
Description: Microsoft Internet Explorer contains multiple vulnerabilities. Flaws in the handling of Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) objects, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Microsoft language packs, JavaScript scripts, and the Microsoft Speech Control could allow a specially-crafted web page to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Additionally, a specially-crafted web page could exploit a flaw in the browser's "Navigation Canceled" page. Exploiting this flaw would allow an attacker to display arbitrary content in the context of that page, including script content. Any scripts executed in this page would execute with elevated privileges as compared to scripts in remote web pages. Some technical details for these vulnerabilities are publicly available.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: All of the reporting council sites plan to distribute the updates during their next regularly schedule system maintenance cycle.
Description: Microsoft Outlook Express and Microsoft Windows Mail contain multiple vulnerabilities. Failure to properly validate local Universal Naming Convention (UNC) paths in email messages could allow a specially crafted email to execute arbitrary commands if the user clicks on a link in that email. Additionally, a web page containing a specially crafted MIME HTML (MHTML) link could trigger a cross-site scripting vulnerability. Note that this flaw can be exploited from a web browser. Two additional information disclosure vulnerability applications were patched as part of this security bulletin. Some technical details are publicly available for these vulnerabilities.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: All of the reporting council sites plan to distribute the updates during their next regularly schedule system maintenance cycle.
Description: Microsoft Windows's "Win32" application programming interface (API) contains a flaw in validating certain parameters passed to functions. The exact functions are not known, but Microsoft has confirmed that Internet Explorer calls the vulnerable functions in such a way as to be vulnerable to this attack. Any other application that uses these functions would likely be vulnerable as well. A specially-crafted web page could trigger the flaw in Internet Explorer; other vectors are possible through other applications. Successfully exploiting this vulnerability would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the vulnerable application.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: All of the reporting council sites plan to distribute the updates during their next regularly schedule system maintenance cycle.
Description: Microsoft Visio, Microsoft's diagramming suite, contains multiple vulnerabilities. A specially-crafted Visio file containing an invalid version number or malformed packed object could trigger memory corruption vulnerabilities. Successfully exploiting these vulnerabilities would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Note that, depending upon configuration, Visio files may be opened without prompting.
Status: Microsoft confirmed, updates available.
Council Site Actions: All of the reporting council sites plan to distribute the updates during their next regularly schedule system maintenance cycle.
Description: The above ActiveX controls have been reported to contain vulnerabilities that could lead to remote code or command execution. A specially crafted web page that instantiates one of these controls could exploit these vulnerabilities to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Note that reusable exploit code that targets arbitrary ActiveX controls is widely available and easily modified to attack these controls.
Status: Users are advised to check with vendors to determine the status of these vulnerabilities. Users can mitigate the impact of these vulnerabilities by disabling these controls via Microsoft's "kill bit" mechanism.
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 responding council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: The Firebird SQL database server contains a flaw in its handling of "connect" requests. An attacker who issues a specially crafted connect request could trigger a memory overwrite condition. Successfully exploiting this condition would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. No authentication is necessary to exploit this vulnerability. Note that full technical details are available for this vulnerability.
Status: Firebird confirmed, updates available. Users can mitigate the impact of this vulnerability by blocking access to TCP port 3050, if possible.
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 responding council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: The Sun Java System Directory Server is Sun's Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server. A flaw in handling authentication requests could allow an attacker to access the LDAP directory and modify its contents without proper authentication. No further technical details are available for this vulnerability.
Status: Sun confirmed, updates available. Users may be able to mitigate the impact of this vulnerability by blocking access to port 389 (TCP and UDP) at the network perimeter, if possible.
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 responding council sites. They reported that no action was necessary.
Description: The HP System Management Home Page, used to administer HP systems running Microsoft Windows or Linux, contains a privilege escalation vulnerability. An authenticated user who is a member of a Novell e-directory is treated as a superuser by the HP System Management Home Page. Any user who is authenticated via the e-directory mechanism is capable of exploiting this vulnerability; unauthenticated users are not able to exploit this vulnerability. Note that some technical details are available for this vulnerability.
Status: HP confirmed, updates available.
Description: The Arris Cadant C3 Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) contains a remote denial-of-service vulnerability. An attacker who sends a specially-crafted IP packet containing invalid IP or unknown IP options to the CMTS would be able to trigger this vulnerability and terminate service to all devices managed by that system.
Status: Arris 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 responding 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 5465 unique vulnerabilities. For this special SANS community listing, Qualys also includes vulnerabilities that cannot be scanned remotely.
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