Symantec Ghost Multiple Denial of Service Vulnerabilities

iDefense Security Advisory 06.05.07
http://labs.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/
Jun 05, 2007

I. BACKGROUND

Symantec Ghost Solution Suite is an enterprise disk imaging software
that allows administrators to remotely back-up and restore client
computers from a central server. More information is available from the
vendors site at the following URL.

http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/products/overview.jsp?pcid=1025&pvid=865_1

II. DESCRIPTION

Remote exploitation of multiple denial of service vulnerabilities in
Symantec Corp.'s Ghost could allow remote attackers to crash the Ghost
service.

These vulnerabilities affect both the client and server daemons due to
what looks like a shared communications library. The daemons listen on
UDP ports 1346, and 1347 respectively.

By sending a malformed UDP-based request to either service, an attacker
can cause the service to crash due to an invalid memory reference. This
condition can be caused by any of several unique requests. In each case,
the particular cause for the access violation varies.

III. ANALYSIS

Exploitation allows remote attackers to crash the Ghost client or server
applications.

The UDP packets can be multicast to an entire sub-net taking down all
processes with one packet. Authentication is not required. Since it is
a UDP packet, it is trivial for the attacker to mask the origin of the
attack by forging the source IP address in the packet header.

By default, the Ghost services are not set to auto restart in the event
of failure. Regardless, exploitation would likely abort any Ghost
procedures currently in progress when the crash occurred.

IV. DETECTION

iDefense confirmed the existence of these vulnerabilities using Symantec
Ghost version 8.0.992 (as supplied with Ghost Solution Suite). Other
versions may be vulnerable as well.

V. WORKAROUND

Employing firewalls to limit access to the client and server daemons can
help prevent exploitation of these vulnerabilities. However, attackers
could potentially bypass firewall rules by forging the origin of
attack.

VI. VENDOR RESPONSE

Symantec has addressed this vulnerability with a software update. For
more information consult their advisory at the following URL.

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/security/Content/2007.06.05b.html

VII. CVE INFORMATION

A Mitre Corp. Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) number has not
been assigned yet.

VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE

12/13/2006  Initial vendor notification
12/13/2006  Initial vendor response
06/05/2007  Coordinated public disclosure

IX. CREDIT

This vulnerability was reported to iDefense by Pravus.

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X. LEGAL NOTICES

Copyright © 2007 iDefense, Inc.

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Disclaimer: The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate
at the time of publishing based on currently available information. Use
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