Symantec Security Advisory
SYM07-029
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/security/Content/2007.11.27.html
27 Nov 2007
Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Server: Multiple Denial of Service Issues in
Job Engine
Revision History
None
Severity
Medium
Remote Access
Yes
Local Access
NoAuthentication Required
Authorized network access normally requiredExploit publicly available
No
Overview
Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Servers (BEWS) may be susceptible to multiple
denial of service
attacks (DoS) if maliciously formatted packets are passed to the BEWS Job
Engine.
Affected Products
Product
Version
Build
SolutionSymantec Backup Exec for Windows Servers
11d
11.0.6235
Hotfix Available
Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Servers
11d
11.0.7170
Hotfix Available
NOTE: ONLY the products and versions listed as affected above are vulnerable to
these issues. This issue impacts the
server only. Client agents are NOT affected.
Details
Secunia Research notified Symantec of three DoS issues involving erroneous
packet handling affecting components of the
Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Servers Job Engine. One is a null-pointer
dereference issue that crashes the listening
service, and two additional issues involving integer overflows that can force
the service into an infinite loop resulting in
memory exhaustion or high CPU utilization. Successful exploitation requires
access to the affected port. In normal installations
this would require the attacker to have authorized but non-privileged access to
the network on which the targeted server resides
to leverage network communications. A successful attack could result in
termination of the targeted service and loss of scheduling
services or potentially loss of access to the application until the service is
restarted or the targeted activity ceases.
Symantec Response
Symantec engineers have addressed this issue in all affected builds of the
identified product. Security updates are available for
all affected product builds.
Symantec strongly recommends all customers apply the latest security update as
indicated for their supported product
versions to protect against threats of this nature.
Symantec knows of no exploitation of or adverse customer impact from these
issues.
The patch listed above for affected products is available from the following
location:
Build 6235: http://support.veritas.com/docs/294241
Build 7170: http://support.veritas.com/docs/294237
Best Practices
As part of normal best practices, Symantec recommends:
* Restrict access to administration or management systems to authorized
privileged users
* Block remote access to all ports not essential for efficient operation
* Restrict remote access, if required, to trusted/authorized systems only
* Remove/disable unnecessary accounts or restrict access according to security
policy as required
* Run under the principle of least privilege where possible
* Keep all operating systems and applications updated with the latest vendor
patches
* Follow a multi-layered approach to security. Run both firewall and antivirus
applications, at a minimum, to
provide multiple points of detection and protection to both inbound and
outbound threats
* Deploy network intrusion detection systems to monitor network traffic for
signs of anomalous or suspicious
activity. This may aid in detection of attacks or malicious activity related to
exploitation of latest vulnerabilities
Credit:
Symantec would like to thank JJ Reyes with Secunia Research for reporting these
findings and coordinating closely with
Symantec as we resolved the issues.
References
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) initiative has assigned:
CVE-2007-4346 to the null pointer dereference DoS issue
CVE-2007-4347 to the integer overflow DoS issues
These issues are candidates for inclusion in the CVE list
(http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes names for security issues.
SecurityFocus has assigned Bugtraq ID BID 26028 for the null pointer issue and
BID 26029 for the integer overflow issues
for inclusion in the SecurityFocus vulnerability database.
Symantec strongly recommends using encrypted email for reporting vulnerability
information to secure@symantec.com.
The Symantec Product Security PGP key can be obtained from
http://www.symantec.com/security.
----------------------------------------
Symantec Product Security/Vulnerability Management Team
Symantec takes the security of our products seriously as a responsible
disclosure company. You can view our response policies at
http://www.symantec.com/security.
We will work directly with anyone who believes they have found a security
issue in a Symantec product to validate the problem and coordinate any
response deemed necessary.
Please contact secure@symantec.com concerning security issues with Symantec
products.
