Symantec Security Advisory
SYM08-007

24 September, 2008

Multiple Vulnerabilities in Scheduler component for NetBackup Server/Enterprise Server on all supported Windows Platforms.

Revision History
Exploitation code has been found to be publicly available for this issue.


Severity
Medium (highly configuration dependent)
 

-	-
Remote Access	Yes
Local Access	No
Authentication Required	Authenticated user involvement required
Exploit publicly available	Yes

Overview
Vulnerabilities were reported in the NetBackup Server / Enterprise Server Scheduler for the versions indicated below. Exploitation of these issues could possibly lead to unauthorized information disclosure, system information corruption or potentially allow arbitrary code execution in the context of the user's browser. However, successful exploitation requires specific conditions.


Affected Products
 

Product	Version	Build	Solution
NetBackup Server/Enterprise on Windows Platforms	5.1	Prior to 51_MP7	5.1 MP7
NetBackup Server/Enterprise on Windows Platforms	6.0	Prior to 60_MP7	6.0 MP7
NetBackup Server/Enterprise on Windows Platforms	6.5	Prior to 6.5.2	6.5.2

Note: ONLY the products and versions listed as affected above are vulnerable to these issues. This issue impacts Windows NetBackup Servers only. Remote clients are not affected.


Details
Symantec was alerted to multiple vulnerabilities consisting of stack overflows and unsafe method calls that Secunia Research discovered in an ActiveX control, installed with NetBackup Server/Enterprise Server for Windows as a part of the scheduler component. Although this control is not intended to be called via an external web browser, it failed to properly parse or validate external input.  If accessed by an authorized but non-privileged user, this improper validation could potentially result in a browser crash or it could possibly permit unauthorized methods calls allowing access to overwrite or corrupt files.  Unauthorized access to the vulnerable control could also result in possible buffer overflows with the potential for malicious code execution in the context of the targeted  browser.

The impact of this threat is considerably lessened as it would require authorized user involvement in any attempt to compromise the targeted server.  To exploit successfully, an attacker would need to be aware of the exact path to the vulnerable control.  An attacker would have to be able to effectively entice a user to upload and execute malicious scripts via HTML email or visit a malicious web site hosting malicious code that could be effectively run against this vulnerable control.


Symantec Response
Symantec product engineers have developed and released solutions for this issue through Symantec's LiveUpdate capability and support channels as indicated.
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.  

The patches listed for affected products are available from the following location:

NetBackup Server/Enterprise Server 5.1 MP7:
 http://www.symantec.com/business/support/downloads.jsp?pid=15143&version=NBUESVRPVER30455
NetBackup Server/Enterprise Server 6.0 MP7:
 http://www.symantec.com/business/support/downloads.jsp?pid=15143&version=NBUESVRPVER32168
NetBackup Server/Enterprise Server 6.5.2:
 http://www.symantec.com/business/support/downloads.jsp?pid=15143&version=NBUESVRPVER31008


Mitigation
Symantec has developed IDS signatures to detect and block attempts to exploit these issues.


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.

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-2007-6016 to the buffer overflow issue

-  CVE-2007-6017 to the unsafe methods issue

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 26904 for the buffer overflows and BID 28008 for the unsafe methods for inclusion in the Security Focus vulnerability database.