McAfee VirusScan Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

iDEFENSE Security Advisory 09.14.04:

*I. BACKGROUND*

McAfee VirusScan is a popular real-time virus protection application.
For more information see http://www.mcafee.com 

*II. DESCRIPTION*

Local exploitation of a design error vulnerability in Networks
Associates Technology Inc.'s McAfee VirusScan could allow attackers to
obtain increased privileges.

The problem specifically exists because SYSTEM privileges are not
dropped when accessing the "System Scan" properties from the System
Tray applet. The vulnerability can be exploited by right-clicking the
System Tray icon, choosing "Properties", selecting "System Scan",
then, from the "Report" tab, selecting "Browse...". The opened file
selected can be abused by navigating to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\,
right-clicking cmd.exe, then selecting "Open"; doing so spawns a
command shell with SYSTEM privileges.

*III. ANALYSIS*

Exploitation allows local users to obtain Local System privileges,
thereby providing them with complete control of the affected system.

*IV. DETECTION*

McAfee VirusScan version 4.5.1 running on Windows 2000 Professional
and Windows XP Professional operating systems is vulnerable. It is
suspected that McAfee VirusScan 4.5 is also vulnerable.

*V. WORKAROUND*

iDEFENSE is currently unaware of any workarounds for this issue.

*VI. VENDOR FIX*

The vendor does not appear to have provided a patch for this issue.
However, due to design changes in the GUI, this vulnerability does not
appear to exist in later versions of the product.

*VII. CVE INFORMATION*

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the
names CAN-2004-0831 to these issues. This is a candidate for inclusion
in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org <http://cve.mitre.org/>), which
standardizes names for
security problems.

*VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE*

08/12/2004   Initial vendor notification - no response
08/12/2004   iDEFENSE clients notified
09/02/2004   Secondary vendor notification - no response
09/14/2004   Public disclosure

*IX. CREDIT*

Ian Vitek is credited with this discovery.

Get paid for vulnerability research
http://www.idefense.com/poi/teams/vcp.jsp

*X. LEGAL NOTICES*

Copyright © 2004 iDEFENSE, Inc.

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electronically. It may not be edited in any way without the express
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email customerservice@idefense.com <mailto:customerservice@idefense.com>
for permission.

Disclaimer: The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate
at the time of publishing 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.