Symantec Automated Support Assistant: Vulnerabilities in Support Tool ActiveX Control

Vulnerabilities were reported in a Symantec-developed ActiveX control, installed with some of Symantec’s consumer products and as a part of Symantec’s technical support troubleshooting tools. Exploitation of these issues could possibly lead to unauthorized information disclosure or potentially allow arbitrary code execution in the context of the user’s browser. However, successful exploitation requires specific conditions.

Severity
Low (moderated by site restriction and user interaction requirements)

Supported Product(s)

Note: Only the Symantec Consumer products indicated above shipped with these components. However, the Automated Support Assistant is used by support to detect problems on computer running any supported Symantec consumer product to provide the user with information on solutions to those problems. Therefore, this control may be installed on Symantec customer systems running consumer products and versions, 2006 and prior, other than those listed above.

Symantec Corporate and Enterprise products do not install or use these components and are NOT affected by this issue. 2007 Consumer releases are NOT affected by this issue.

Details
Symantec was alerted to a stack overflow and information disclosure vulnerabilities that Next Generation Security Research (NGSS) discovered in a Symantec-developed ActiveX control, installed as a part of Symantec’s Automated Support Assistant and with some of Symantec’s consumer products (indicated above). This ActiveX control failed to properly validate external input. This failure could potentially result in a browser crash or, possibly unauthorized use of methods allowing access to system information as well as a stack overflow with the potential for malicious code execution in the context of the user’s browser.

The impact of this threat is considerably lessened as it requires interactive user involvement as well as an attacker’s successful spoofing of a trusted domain website in any attempt to compromise the targeted system. The ActiveX control identified is restricted to specific trusted websites in which it can be scripted. To exploit successfully, an attacker would need to be able to effectively masquerade as the authorized site and entice a user to click on their specific URL for the malicious code to successfully impact the customer’s system.

This issue is a candidate for inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes names for security problems. The CVE identifier assigned to this issue is CVE-2006-5403

Symantec Response
Symantec product engineers have developed and released solutions for this issue through Symantec's LiveUpdate and other venues.

Symantec users who normally run regular manual LiveUpdates will already be protected. However, to ensure all available patches have been properly applied to Symantec products, users should run a manual LiveUpdate as follows:

• Open any installed Symantec consumer product identified above
• Click on LiveUpdate in the toolbar
• Run LiveUpdate until all available Symantec product updates are downloaded and installed

Symantec product engineers have upgraded the current vulnerable component on the Symantec support website so users will be able to download a non-vulnerable version of the Automated Support Assistant.

Customers who may have previously downloaded the support tool or users who have installed the consumer products identified above can go to the support site, https://www-secure.symantec.com/techsupp/asa/install.jsp and download a new version of the Automated Support Assistant. By downloading a new version, the legacy tool will be replaced by an updated, non-vulnerable version.

Symantec recommends all customers apply all updates to protect against threats of this nature.

Symantec knows of no exploitation of or adverse customer impact from these issues.

Mitigation
Symantec Security Response has also developed a removal tool to assist in removing legacy versions of the at risk control. The removal tool is located here
(http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/security_response/removaltools.jsp).

IDS signatures have been developed to detect and block any attempts to exploit this issue.

Customers using Symantec Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall will receive signature updates if they run LiveUpdate automatically. If not, Symantec recommends customers manually run Symantec LiveUpdate regularly to ensure they have the most current protection available. Internet zone settings for the local user may prohibit activation of ActiveX controls without their consent. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system would be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights in the event of any attempted compromise.

As always, if previously unknown malicious code were to be distributed in this manner, Symantec Security Response will quickly react and send updated definitions via LiveUpdate to detect and block any new threat.

Best Practices
As part of normal best practices, Symantec strongly recommends a multi-layered approach to security:

• Run under the principle of least privilege where possible.
• Keep all operating systems and applications updated with the latest vendor patches.
• Users, at a minimum, should run both a personal firewall and antivirus application with current updates to provide multiple points of detection and protection to both inbound and outbound threats.
• Users should be cautious of mysterious attachments and executables delivered via email and be cautious of browsing unknown/untrusted websites or opening unknown/untrusted URL links.
• Do not open unidentified attachments or executables from unknown sources or that you didn't request or were unaware of.
• Always err on the side of caution. Even if the sender is known, the source address may be spoofed.
• If in doubt, contact the sender to confirm they sent it and why before opening the attachment. If still in doubt, delete the attachment without opening it.

Symantec thanks John Heasman of Next Generation Security Research for reporting this finding to us and for excellent coordination while resolving this issue.

25 February 2008: Added CVE identifier

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