This week saw a huge number (more than 150) of new vulnerabilities including the largest number in at least three years of *critical* new vulnerabilities (nine). Most of the critical new vulnerabilities were from Microsoft (too many to list in this opening paragraph), but BMC users should not overlook the Patrol vulnerability. Vulnerable system management tools are like Patrol, and back up and security tools, are the "back doors" that many sophisticated attackers are exploiting. 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).
******************** Sponsored By Sourcefire, Inc. **********************
SANS Real-time Adaptive Security White Paper
Real-time Adaptive Security is the next step beyond an IPS implementation. It gives you full network visibility, provides context around events so you know which ones to investigate first, reduces your false positives dramatically, offers automated impact assessment, introduces automated IPS tuning, and more. Let SANS tell you how. http://www.sans.org/ info/36369"> http://www.sans.org/ info/36369
*************************************************************************
TRAINING UPDATE - - SANS 2009 in Orlando in early march - the largest security training conference and expo in the world. lots of evening sessions: http://www.sans.org/ - - SANS Security West Las Vegas (1/24-2/01) http://sans.org/securitywest09/ - - Looking for training in your own Community? http://sans.org/community/ For a list of all upcoming events, on-line and live: www.sans.org
*************************************************************************
********************** Sponsored Link *********************************
1) Learn to select and implement the right tools at the Log Management Summit April 6-7. http://www.sans.org/info/36379
*************************************************************************
Part I for this issue has been compiled by 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: Microsoft Internet Explorer contains a remote code execution vulnerability in its handling of certain XML structures. A specially crafted web page can result in remote code execution with the privileges of the current user. This vulnerability is currently being exploited in the wild, and is reportedly not mitigated by the most recent Microsoft patches. No further technical details are publicly available for this vulnerability.
Status: Vendor confirmed, no updates available.
Description: Microsoft WordPad is a Rich Text Format (RTF) editor included by default in Microsoft Windows. It is the default viewer for RTF files. It contains a flaw in its Text Converter component. A specially crafted RTF document could trigger this vulnerability, allowing an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. This vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild and is reportedly not mitigated by the most recent set of Microsoft patches.
Status: Vendor confirmed, no updates available.
Description: BMC Patrol is an enterprise monitoring software package. It contains a flaw in its logging code. A specially crafted message sent to the vulnerable process could trigger a format string vulnerability in this code, allowing an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the vulnerable process (usually SYSTEM). Some technical details are publicly available for this vulnerability. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available. Users can mitigate the impact of this vulnerability by blocking TCP port 3181 at the network perimeter.
Description: GDI, the Graphics Device Interface, is the Microsoft Windows component responsible for drawing graphics and text to output devices. It contains multiple vulnerabilities in its handling of Windows Metafile (WMF) graphics files. A specially crafted WMF file could trigger one of these vulnerabilities, allowing an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Generally any application that parses WMF files using GDI would be vulnerable. Depending on configuration, a malicious WMF file may be opened upon receipt without first prompting the user. Some technical details are publicly available for these vulnerabilities.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft Windows Search is the component of Windows that allows users to search filesystems and other sources for information. A specially crafted web page containing a URL using the "search-ms" protocol handler, which is handled by WIndows Search, could trigger a remote code execution vulnerability with the privileges of the current user. Additionally, if a user saves a specially crafted "search-ms" file, a remote code execution vulnerability may be triggered. Note that, in the latter vulnerability, user interaction beyond visiting a web page is required to exploit this vulnerability. Some technical details are publicly available for these vulnerabilities.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft Internet Explorer contains multiple vulnerabilities in its handling of a variety of web page structures and scripts. A specially crafted web page could trigger one of these vulnerabilities, allowing an attacker to perform various actions, including executing arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Some technical details are publicly available for these vulnerabilities.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Description: Visual Basic is a popular programming language from Microsoft. It provides some of its runtime functionality via a collection of ActiveX controls. Several of these controls contain vulnerabilities in their handling of a variety of inputs. A specially crafted web page that instantiates one of these controls could trigger one of these vulnerabilities, allowing an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Some technical details are publicly available for these vulnerabilities.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available. Users can mitigate the impact of these vulnerabilities by disabling the affected controls via Microsoft's "kill bit" mechanism; affected CLSIDs are available in Microsoft's advisory. Note that disabling this controls may affect normal application functionality.
Description: Microsoft Office contains multiple vulnerabilities in its handling of Microsoft Office Word and Rich Text Format (RTF) files. A specially crafted Word or RTF file could trigger one of these vulnerabilities. Successfully exploiting one of these vulnerabilities would allow an attacker to perform a variety of actions, including executing arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. In most configurations, a user will be prompted before opening a potentially malicious file. Some technical details are publicly available for these vulnerabilities.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft Excel, the spreadsheet component of Microsoft Office, contains multiple vulnerabilities in its parsing of Microsoft Excel files. A specially crafted Excel file could trigger one of these vulnerabilities, allowing an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Note that, in most configurations, users will be prompted before opening potentially malicious Excel files. Some technical details are publicly available for these vulnerabilities.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft SQL Server contains a flaw in its handling of the "sp_replwritetovarbin" procedure. A call to this procedure with specially crafted values could result in a memory corruption condition. It is believed that this condition could be exploited to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability, but this vulnerability could be exploited via SQL injection, thus using the authentication credentials of the vulnerable web application. A proof-of-concept is publicly available for this vulnerability.
Status: Vendor has not confirmed, no updates available.
Description: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is an enterprise document management and collaboration system. It contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in its handling of requests to its web interface. An unauthenticated user could exploit this vulnerability to execute certain actions with the privileges of the SharePoint administrator. Note that full access is not granted; only a subset of actions are available via this vulnerability. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability to create a denial-of-service condition, create scripts that execute in the context of the affected SharePoint site, or gain access to potentially sensitive information.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft Media Components are a set of components used to play various media formats on Microsoft Windows. These components contain a credential reflection vulnerability. A malicious media server that requires the user to input his or her authentication credentials could then use the sent credentials to access the victim's system. Note that successfully exploiting this vulnerability requires a user to input authentication credentials. Some technical details are publicly available for this vulnerability. This update also addresses an information disclosure vulnerability.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
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 5549 unique vulnerabilities. For this special SANS community listing, Qualys also includes vulnerabilities that cannot be scanned remotely.
(c) 2008. 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.
Subscriptions: @RISK is distributed free of charge by the SANS Institute to people responsible for managing and securing information systems and networks. You may forward this newsletter to others with such responsibility inside or outside your organization.