Re: Symantec Enterprise Firewall (SEF) Notify Daemon data loss via SN MP

["Sym Security" <symsecurity () symantec com>]

On 02/20/2002, Martin O'Neal of Corsaire Ltd. posted:


-- Corsaire Limited Security Advisory --

Title: Symantec Enterprise Firewall (SEF) Notify Daemon data loss via SNMP
Date: 21.01.02
Application: Symantec Enterprise Firewall (SEF) 6.5.x
Environment: WinNT, Win2000
Author: Martin O'Neal [martin.oneal () corsaire com]
Audience: General distribution


-- Scope --

The aim of this document is to clearly define some issues related to
potential data loss from the Notify Daemon within the Symantec
Enterprise Firewall (SEF) environment as provided by Symantec [1].

Note: These issues do NOT appear to be directly related to recent SNMP
issues announced by CERT as advisory CA-2002-03 [2].


------------------------------------------------snip-------------------------------------------------------------------


Symantec Security Response Advisory

20 February, 2002
Symantec Enterprise Firewall SNMP Notify Daemon drops alerts,

Reference
Corsaire Limited Security Advisory 020121-001c.txt

Risk Impact
Medium

Affected Components
Symantec Enterprise Firewall versions 6.5.x and 7.0

Overview
Corsaire Limited discovered an issue with the way Symantec Enterprise
Firewall handled SNMP notify alerts that could cause alerts to be dropped
in certain instances.
NOTE: The SNMP notify daemon issue addressed by Corsaire Limited in their
Advisory is NOT related to CERT Advisory CA-2002-03, Multiple
Vulnerabilities in Many Implementations of the Simple Network Management
Protocol (SNMP).

Details
Corsaire Limited notified Symantec Corporation of an issue in the way
Symantec Enterprise Firewall handled some event alerts. This issue could,
potentially, result in the failure of event alerts to be logged or the
administrator to be notified.

Symantec Enterprise Firewall provides many methods to alert an
administrator about firewall log events based on the functionality of a
subsystem called the Notify daemon. One of these notification methods sends
SNMP traps to the network management station where they are centrally
managed. However, if the firewall log entry exceeds an established size
threshold, the Notify daemon drops the SNMP trap and logs a "failed to
notify" error message instead.

In the event that SNMP is the only alert mechanism used, the administrator
may fail to receive notifications for which he or she has established alert
criteria.

Symantec Response
Symantec has verified the logging issues identified by Corsaire Limited.
The problem exists in the way the Notify daemon allocates the buffer size
for the SNMP traps. In certain instances, while encoding the SNMP trap, the
message may exceed the allocated buffer size. In these instances, the SNMP
trap is dropped and the error message is logged.
NOTE:  This problem is a notification handling issue only.  The issue does
not allow unauthorized access to the system nor is it possible to
maliciously create a DoS condition using this issue.

To address this SNMP issue, Symantec has developed hotfixes available for
download for affected versions:

·     Enterprise Product Support
 http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/enterprise/

This advisory can be viewed at
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/security/Content/
2002.02.20a.html

Credit
Symantec takes the security and proper functionality of its products very
seriously. Symantec appreciates the coordination of Martin O'Neal and
Corsaire Limited in identifying and providing technical details of
potential areas of concern so it can quickly address the issue. Anyone with
information on security issues with Symantec products should contact
symsecurity () symantec com.

Copyright (c) 2002 by Symantec Corp.
Permission to redistribute this Advisory electronically is granted as long
as it is not edited in any way unless authorized by Symantec Security
Response. Reprinting the whole or part of this Advisory in a medium other
than electronically requires permission from Sym Security () symantec com.

Disclaimer
The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate at the time of
printing based on currently available information. Use of the information
constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are no
warranties with regard to this information. Neither the author nor the
publisher accepts any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential
loss or damage arising from use of, or reliance on this information.

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