A huge number of very critical Microsoft vulnerabilities this week, but don't ignore the Apple Safari problems.
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. **********************
Your Network Security Isn't Good Enough Anymore
Today's threats-and networks-are dynamic. Unfortunately most network security systems are not.
Join Martin Roesch, Founder and CTO of Sourcefire(r) and Creator of Snort(r), in a series of seminars, as he shows why network security must include full network visibility, relevant context, and automated impact assessment to be effective.
More information http://www.sans.org/info/44693
*************************************************************************
TRAINING UPDATE - - SANSFIRE in Baltimore 6/13-6/20 (24 long courses, 12 short courses) http://www.sans.org/sansfire09/event.php - - Rocky Mountain SANS, July 7-13 (6 full-length hands-on courses) http://www.sans.org/rockymnt2009/event.php - - SANS Boston, Aug 2-9 (6 full-length hands-on courses) https://www.sans.org/boston09/index.php - - National Forensiscs Summit, July 6-14 http://www.sans.org/forensics09_summit/ Looking for training in your own community? http://sans.org/community/ Save 25% on all On-Demand training (30 full courses) - See samples at http://www.sans.org/ondemand/spring09.php Plus Amsterdam, London, Dubai, Riyahd, Cairo, Melbourne, Canberra, and Singapore all in the next 90 days. For a list of all upcoming events, on-line and live: www.sans.org
*************************************************************************
************************* Sponsored Links ******************************
1) SANS Recommended Webcast Replay featuring Novell: Enabling a Productive, Mobile Workforce with Endpoint Security http://www.sans.org/info/44698
2) SANS Vendor Demo Spotlight: CA - Identity Lifecycle Management - Increase efficiency & reduce costs! Securely manage identities throughout their lifecycles with ease. http://www.sans.org/info/44703
3) Register Now for the Upcoming Webcast: How to Manage Endpoints in a Distributed, Cloud-based Environment. Sponsored by BigFix http://www.sans.org/info/44708
*************************************************************************
Part I for this issue has been compiled by Rohan Kotian 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 multiple vulnerabilities in its handling of HTML objects and cached content. A specially crafted web page could trigger one of these vulnerabilities using specially crafted HTML or scripts. There is an information disclosure vulnerability caused due to a race condition that could allow an attacker to bypass domain restrictions into another domain or Internet Explorer zone. There is an information disclosure vulnerability caused due to an error in the way Internet Explorer handles the cached content. Successful exploitation in the above cases might allow an attacker to disclose content from the local computer or view content from the browser window in another domain. There is a DHTML Object memory corruption vulnerability caused to incorrect handling of certain unexpected method calls to HTML objects in a Web page, which might lead to memory corruption and eventually code execution. There are HTML Objects memory corruption vulnerabilities caused due to an error in the way Internet Explorer accesses an uninitialized or deleted object. This causes Internet Explorer to access uninitialized memory thereby leading to memory corruption and possibly code execution. Some technical details are publicly available for some of these vulnerabilities.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft Excel contains multiple vulnerabilities in its parsing of Excel documents. A specially crafted Excel file that has a malformed record object could trigger one of these vulnerabilities when an unsuspecting user opens it with Microsoft Excel. With successful exploitation an attacker could execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. To exploit these flaws, an attacker can take any of the following actions: (a) Create a webpage that downloads a malicious Excel file from a server, and entice an attacker to visit his webpage. (b) Send an email with a specially crafted Excel file as an attachment and convince the user to open it. Note that, on recent versions of Microsoft Office, documents are not opened upon receipt without first prompting the user. Some technical details are publicly available for these vulnerabilities.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft Word contains multiple vulnerabilities in file-format processing code. A specially-crafted Word document file could exploit one of these vulnerabilities. There are two buffer overflow vulnerabilities in Microsoft Word in the way it handles Word files with malformed records. One of the vulnerability is a flaw due to improper boundary checks on the part of Microsoft Word while parsing vulnerable tags within a crafted Word document. Successful exploitation leads to memory corruption in such a way that an attacker can execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. To exploit these flaws, an attacker might take one of the following actions: (a) Create a webpage that downloads a malicious Word document from a server, and entice an attacker to visit his webpage. (b) Send an email with a specially crafted Word document as an attachment and convince the user to open it. Note that, on recent versions of Microsoft Office, Word documents are not opened upon receipt without first prompting the user. Some technical details are publicly available for these vulnerabilities.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Description: The Microsoft Works Converter included with Microsoft Word is used to convert documents created by Microsoft Works into other formats. There is a buffer overflow vulnerability caused due to the way Microsoft Works Converter parses font names in a specially crafted Works (.wps) files. Successfully exploiting this vulnerability would lead to denial of service condition or arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the current user. To exploit these flaws, an attacker might take one of the following actions: (a) Create a webpage that downloads a malicious Works document from a server, and entice an attacker to visit his webpage. (b) Send an email with a specially crafted Works document as an attachment and convince the user to open it. Note that on recent versions of Microsoft Office, documents are not opened upon receipt without user intervention.
Status: Vendor confirmed, updates available.
Description: Active Directory is Microsoft's implementation of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), a network protocol designed to provide access to distributed directories, and is an integral part of several Microsoft products and operating systems. There are two vulnerabilities in the way LDAP service handles specially crafted LDAP requests. The first issue is caused because of memory being freed incorrectly when the LDAP service handles the specially crafted LDAP or LDAPS (LDAP over SSL) requests. Successful exploitation might allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code. The second issue because of improper memory management on the part of LDAP service while processing specially crafted LDAP or LDAPS requests. Successful exploitation will lead to a denial of service condition.
Status: Vendor has confirmed, updates available.
Description: Adobe Acrobat is a program designed to create, manage and view Portable Document Format (PDF) and Adobe Reader is designed to only view and print PDF's. Both Adobe reader and Acrobat have been reported to have multiple vulnerabilities, which could be triggered by opening a specially crafted PDF file. The issues are heap overflow, stack-based overflow, integer overflow, and memory corruption in the various components. One of the issues is a boundary error flaw while parsing malformed U3D model files in a PDF file, thereby leading to stack overflow. Another issue is a heap overflow caused due to inadequate checks while processing Huffman encoded JBIG2 text region segments. There are about six vulnerabilities in Adobe reader and Acrobat caused due to improper parsing of JBIG2-encoded data streams in PDF files. There are other unspecified vulnerabilities in addition to the ones mentioned above. Successful exploitation might allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user. Note that the PDF documents are often opened automatically by the vulnerable application without the consent of the user. Some details for some of the vulnerabilities are publicly available.
Status: Vendor has confirmed, updates available.
Description: Windows print spooler service (spoolsv.exe) is responsible for tasks related to print jobs such as, retrieving and loading the correct printer driver, scheduling a print job, sending data to printer. Multiple vulnerabilities have been identified in the Windows print spooler service. The first issue is a buffer overflow vulnerability caused due to improper parsing of certain printing data structures. Successful exploitation might allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code. The second issue is information disclosure vulnerability caused due to inadequate checks, on the part of the Windows Printing Service, specifically on files what can be included with separator pages. The third issue is an elevation of privilege vulnerability caused due to inadequate validation, on the part of Windows Print Spooler service, on the paths from which a dynamic-link library (DLL) may be loaded. Successful exploitation might lead to arbitrary code execution.
Status: Vendor has confirmed, updates available.
Description: Apple's Safari web browser, installed by default on all recent versions of Mac OS X, contains multiple vulnerabilities. The first issue is a memory corruption vulnerability caused due to improper garbage collection of JavaScript set elements in WebCore. The second is an uninitialized pointer issue caused due to calling a method for an object that doesn't exist. The third issue is a memory corruption vulnerability caused to improper handling of attr() function in a CSS content object. The fourth issue is an error in CFNetwork caused due to misidentification of certain image files as HTML, leading to JavaScript execution. The fifth issue is information disclosure vulnerability due to errors in CFNetwork. The sixth issue is caused due to memory corruption errors in CoreGraphics while processing arguments. The seventh issue is also caused to memory corruption errors in CoreGraphics but while handling TrueType fonts. The eighth issue is in FreeType v2.3.8, which has multiple integer overflows. The ninth issue is in CoreGraphics handling malicious PDF files which might lead to memory corruption. The tenth issue exists while handling PNG files caused due to uninitialized pointers. The eleventh issue is caused due to improper handling of certain character encodings by ICU. The twelfth issue is multiple vulnerabilities in libxml2 version 2.6.16. The thirteenth issue is bypass of revocation checking caused due to improper handling of EV certificates. The fourteenth issue is that the Reset button in Reset Safari may not remove website passwords from memory immediately. The fifteenth issue is an error in Private Browsing feature. The sixteenth issue is an error in open-help-anchor URL handler which may lead to disclosure of local file content. The Seventeenth issue is an error in Safari Windows Installer which might lead to Safari being run with elevated privileges for its initial launch. There are some more cross-site scripting, Website spoofing, memory corruption, type conversion errors in Apple Webkit which might lead to remote code execution for the attackers. Some technical details for some of these vulnerabilities are publicly available.
Status: Vendor has confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), a set of Internet-based services for servers created by Microsoft, has elevation of privilege vulnerabilities. The specific flaw lies in the WebDAV plug-in, an extension of HTTP, of the affected IIS servers. The WebDAV plug-in does not decode the URL's in the HTTP requests properly which might result in WebDAV applying an incorrect configuration, a configuration that might allow an anonymous access. Thus a specially crafted HTTP request then will be able to bypass authentication. Some technical details about these vulnerabilities are publicly available.
Status: Vendor has confirmed, updates available.
Description: Libpurple is a library implementing the Microsoft Network (MSN) Messenger protocol, which is used for instant messaging. Libpurple's implementation of this protocol is used by numerous clients, including Pidgin and Adium. Pidgin is installed by default on numerous Linux, UNIX, and Unix-like operating systems, and Adium is a popular instant messaging application for Apple Mac OS X. Libpurple library's MSN protocol implementation has heap overflow vulnerability specifically while handling SLP messages. The function "msn_slplink_process_msg()" does not check the offset value in a SLP packet adequately, as a result of a specially crafted SLP packet can overflow a heap buffer. Successful exploitation might lead to arbitrary code execution.
Status: Vendor has confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft Windows Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Marshalling Engine, which provides a common RPC interface between RPC clients and servers has an elevation of privilege vulnerability. The specific flaw is caused due to RPC Marshalling Engine not updating its internal state appropriately, thus resulting to pointer being read from an incorrect location courtesy a specially crafted RPC message. Successful exploitation might allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code. Note that Microsoft Windows are not delivered with any RPC servers and clients, thus in default configuration users could not be exploited by this vulnerability. However, the vulnerability could affect third-party RPC applications. Some technical details about this vulnerability are publicly available.
Status: Vendor has confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft Office PowerPoint, a presentation program from Microsoft, has heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability. Specially crafted Freelance files when viewed or opened can trigger this vulnerability. The flaw is caused due to an array indexing error in the Microsoft PowerPoint Freelance Windows 2.1 Translator "FL21WIN.DLL" while parsing layout information. Successful exploitation might lead to arbitrary code execution. Note that systems with MS09-017 applied are not vulnerable to this, since the support for Freelance files is disabled by default, thereby blocking the opening of Freelance files by default. But there is a workaround to this and the support can be re-enabled via a key in the registry. Microsoft has stated that no fix will be issued for this and so, users that have enabled Freelance file support should not open Freelance files from untrusted sources.
Status: Vendor has confirmed, no updates available.
Description: Microsoft Windows Kernel, the core of the operating system that provides system level services, has got multiple elevation of privilege vulnerabilities. The first issue is an error in the way that Windows kernel validates changes in certain kernel objects. The second issue is caused due to inadequate validation of pointers from the user mode. The third issue is caused due inadequate validation of an argument passed to a system call. The fourth issue is due to inadequate checks on the inputs from the user mode while editing a specific desktop parameter. Successful exploitation might allow an attacker to run arbitrary code in kernel mode. Some technical details for this vulnerability are publicly available.
Status: Vendor has confirmed, updates available.
Description: Microsoft Windows Search, a feature that allows instant search capabilities for files, e-mails, contacts and etc, has an information disclosure vulnerability. The specific flaw is caused due to Windows Search not restricting the environment, within which scripts are executed, adequately. Successful exploitation might allow an attacker to run a malicious script. Note that the Windows Search component is not preinstalled by default on Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
Status: Vendor has 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 7103 unique vulnerabilities. For this special SANS community listing, Qualys also includes vulnerabilities that cannot be scanned remotely.
(c) 2009. 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.