Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Server: Multiple Denial of Service Issues in Job Engine

SYMSA1141
Last Updated November 27, 2007
Initial Publication Date November 27, 2007
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  • Status: Closed
  • Severity: Medium
  • CVSS Base Score:

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.

 

Severity
Medium

Remote Access

Yes

Local Access

No

Authentication Required

Authorized network access normally required

Exploit publicly available

  

 

Affected Products

Product

Version

Build

Solution

Symantec 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.

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

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

Symantec would like to thank JJ Reyes with Secunia Research for reporting these findings and coordinating closely with Symantec as we resolved the issues.

Legacy ID: SYM07-029

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