Volume Manager for Windows 2000 Version 3.1

Veritas Storage Foundation for Windows Versions 4.1, 4.1RP1, 4.2, 4.2RP1, 4.2RP2, 4.3, 4.3MP1, 4.3MP2

3Com's Zero Day Initiative notified Symantec of an authentication bypass and arbitrary code execution vulnerability discovered in the Storage Foundation for Windows Scheduler Service, VxSchedService.exe.  The Scheduler Service server, initially introduced in  Storage Foundation for Windows 5.0, listens for incoming scheduling messages from client systems.  An attacker with network access who could successfully connect directly to the Scheduler Service socket could then bypass the built-in authentication in the management console.  By properly manipulating this vector, the attacker has the potential to possibly add arbitrary commands to the registry that could be executed during normal scheduled runs.
This vulnerability, if successfully exploited, would most likely be initiated by a malicious user authenticated on the local network since the affected service port should not normally be available to other than authorized network systems.  Any potentially successful attack by a non-authorized remote attacker would most likely be a scenario of enticing an authorized user to run or allow to run malicious code that might successfully exploit this issue.

Resolution:

1. Download the attached binary vxschedservice_288627.EXE (Download Now link below) and extract it to a temporary folder.

2. Stop the "Veritas Scheduler Service" service.
3. Stop the "Veritas Storage Agent" service.
4. Take a backup of vxschedservice.exe file present at the location:

                 <Veritas_Home>\Veritas Volume Manager 5.0

5. Place the vxschedservice.exe file at the above location from the correct folder (W2K3 or W2K3-64) for the proper platform support of Windows 2003 (32/64).
6. Configure the Scheduler service like this:

a. In case of a non-clustered setup and a single-node cluster,  no additional configuration is needed.

b. In case of a clustered setup with more than one node, on each node of the cluster, configure the service with a "domain" user which has local admin rights on that node. Here, "domain" represents the domain on which the cluster is hosted.

7. Start the "Veritas Storage Agent" service.



Symantec Response
Symantec takes the security of its products and customers very seriously. Symantec engineers have verified and corrected this issue in Storage Foundation for Windows 5.0.

Updates are available for supported products. Symantec recommends customers apply the latest product update available for their supported product versions to enhance their security posture and protect against potential security threats of this nature.

Symantec knows of no exploitation of or adverse customer impact from this issue.

As part of normal best practices, Symantec strongly recommends:

· Restrict access to administration or management systems to privileged users.

· Restrict remote access, if required, to trusted/authorized systems only.

· Run under the principle of least privilege where possible to limit the impact of exploit by threats.

· Keep all operating systems and applications updated with the latest vendor patches.

· Follow a multi-layered approach to security. Run both firewall and anti-malware applications, at a minimum, to provide multiple points of detection and protection to both inbound and outbound threats.

· Deploy network and host-based 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 latent vulnerabilities

CVE
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) initiative has assigned CVE Candidate CVE-2007-2279 to this issue.

This issue is a candidate for inclusion in the CVE list, which standardizes names for security problems.

Credit:
Symantec would like to thank Aaron Portnoy with 3Com DV Labs (  http://dvlabs.tippingpoint.com ) and 3Com/ZDI for reporting this issue and for providing full coordination while Symantec resolved it.