Foofus.net Security Advisory: Symantec AMS Intel Alert Handler service Design Flaw

[spider <spider () swamp foofus net>]

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Foofus.net Security Advisory: foofus-20100725
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Title:          Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition AMS Intel Alert Handler
Version:        10.1.8.8000 and earlier
Vendor:         Symantec 
Release Date:   26.07.2010
Issue Status:   Reported To Vendor on 01/06/2010

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1. Summary:

Alert Management Service (AMS2) is a service used to setup, manage and report 
alerts within legacy Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition products. 

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2. Description:

The Intel Alert Handler service (hndlrsvc.exe) provides alert setup and response 
capabilities to AMS2. A design error in Symantec's implementation of this function 
allows an attacker who can establish a TCP connection to port 38292, on a vulnerable
host to execute commands at system level on that host.

No special exploit code is needed to carry out this attack, by leveraging the AMS 
server console tool an attacker can setup an alert response to run a command on a
vulnerable system without authenticating. The AMS server console can also be used 
to remotely trigger the alert causing the command to execute at system level.

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3. Impact:

Exploiting this allows an adversary to execute code on a vulnerable system with out
authenticating

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4. Affected Products:

All version of Symantec SAVCE with AMS server installed, or Symantec System CenterConsole 
with AMS plugin installed are vulnerable to this exploit.

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5. Solution:

   a. Uninstall Symantec System Center. It is advised that any system vulnerable to 
      this exploit have all Symantec products uninstalled and reinstalled. Uninstalling
      the AMS plugin from an affected installation will not remove the vulnerability. 
   b. Uninstall AMS server
   c. Disable Alert Handler (hndlrsvc.exe)  service
   d. Also upgrade to the latest version of Symantec Endpoint Protection

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6) Time Table:

01/06/2010 Reported Vulnerability to Vendor. 
01/11/2010 Vendor acknowledged Receiving report 
01/12/2010 Vendor Tried to convince me that this was XFR.exe issue
07/26/2010 Publishes Advisory

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7) Credits: Discovered by SPIDER 

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8. Reference:

http://www.foofus.net/?page_id=149

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The Foofus.Net team is an assortment of security professionals located somewhere
in the Midwestern United States. http://www.foofus.net

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