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Symantec Security ResponseSMNTC-1304

HistoryNov 05, 2014 - 8:00 a.m.

Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager Multiple Issues

2014-11-0508:00:00

Symantec Security Response

EPSS

0.05

Percentile

92.9%

JSON

SUMMARY

The management console for Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager (SEPM) is susceptible to multiple vulnerabilities including XML External Entity Injection, reflected cross-site scripting and the potential for arbitrary file write/overwrite.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

Product

Version

Build

Solution(s)

—|—|—|—

Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager

12.1

All

Update to 12.1 RU5.

ADDITIONAL PRODUCT INFORMATION

Product Not Affected

Product

Version

—|—

Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) clients

All

Symantec Network Access Control (SNAC)

All

Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager

11.0.x

Symantec Protection Center Small Business Edition

12.0.x

ISSUES

CVSS2

Base Score

Impact

Exploitability

CVSS2 Vector

—|—|—|—
| | |

SEPM Unauthenticated XML External Entity Injections (XXE) - High

7.5

6.4

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

SEPM Multiple Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) -Medium

4.3

2.9

8.6

AV:A/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N

SEPM Arbitrary File Write/Overwrite - Medium

6.1

6.9

6.5

AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVE

BID

Description

—|—|—

CVE-2014-3437

BID 70843

Unauthenticated XML External Entity Injection

CVE-2014-3438

BID 70844

Multiple Reflected Cross-Site Scripting

CVE-2014-3439

BID 70845

Arbitrary File Write/Overwrite

MITIGATION

Details

The management console for Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager (SEPM) does not properly validate incoming XML data, which could potentially allow unauthorized access to restricted server-side data and to potentially leverage additional console management functionality. An attempt to exploit this type of vulnerability would require any attacker to successfully impersonate or hijack the input source of external information/updates for SEPM or to be able to successfully inject their arbitrary XML code into an incoming XML stream.

SEPM is also susceptible to reflected XSS issues existing in the interface scripts used to manage the console. The management console does not provide sufficient validation/sanitation of incoming input. Successful targeting could allow an unauthorized individual to steal the session cookies or hijack the browser session being used to manage the console. This could potentially allow unauthorized user-level access to the management console.

Arbitrary file write vulnerability in the ConsoleServlet could allow an attacker to write or overwrite arbitrary files in the context of the web server. This is due to improper filtering of user-supplied data to the logging component. This could possibly allow arbitrary code to be written to the log file and potentially to disk. This attempt would likely result in a denial of service server disruption. However, if successful, this could lead to unauthorized elevated access on the server.

In a recommended installation, the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager server should not be accessible external to the network which would still allow internal attack attempts from malicious non-privileged users but should restrict external attack attempts. However, a malicious, non-authorized individual could leverage known methods of trust exploitations to compromise a client user in an attempt to gain network/system access. These exploitation attempts generally require enticing a previously authenticated user to access a malicious link in a context such as a web link or in an HTTP email

The potential to leverage the remote access XXE vulnerabilities to facilitate further attempts against local access functionality could increase the overall severity of a successful attack against the application. A successful attack could potentially allow application-level access to the server.

Symantec Response
Symantec product engineers verified these issues. SEPM 12.1 RU5 contains updates that prevent these issues from occurring. Customers should implement the mitigations described below until the available update can be installed to address these issues. Symantec is not aware of exploitation of or adverse customer impact from this issue.

Update Information

Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager 12.1 RU5 is available from Symantec File Connect.

Mitigations

If unable to update to 12.1.5 (RU5) immediately, a SEP administrator has two options.

 Restrict web console access and SPC v1 to localhost

 Disable web console access available under https://localhost:8443/console and SPC v1 under https://localhost:8443/portal

Restricting web console access to localhost

 Open [SEPM Installation directory]\tomcat\conf\server.xml in a text editor.

 Find the following entry:  &lt;Context crossContext="true" docBase="ajaxswing" path="/console" reloadable="false"/&gt;

```
 Edit this line to look like this:   
```

```
 Restart SEPM service.
```

Restricting SPC v1 access to localhost

 Open [SEPM Installation directory]\tomcat\conf\server.xml in a text editor.

 Find the following entry:  &lt;Context crossContext="true" docBase="/portal.war" path="/portal" reloadable="false"&gt;

```
 Edit this line to look like this:   
```

```
 Restart SEPM service.
```

Disabling web console access

To disable the web console access, follow these steps:

 Open [SEPM Installation directory]\tomcat\conf\server.xml in a text editor.

```
 Comment out the following line:  
```

```
 Stop the SEPM service.
```

 If exists, delete this folder and all of its contents: [SEPM installation folder]\tomcat\webapps\ajaxswing

```
 Start the SEPM service.
```

 This action will prevent launching of the Web Console until this mitigation is removed.

Note: The SEPM console is not impacted by this and will continue to work as expected.

Disabling SPC v1 web console access

To disable the web console access, follow these steps:

 Open [SEPM Installation directory]\tomcat\conf\server.xml in a text editor.

```
 Comment out the following line:  
```

```
 Stop the SEPM service.
```

 If exists, delete this file: [SEPM installation folder]\tomcat\webapps\Portal.war

 If exists, delete this folder and all of its contents: [SEPM installation folder]\tomcat\webapps\portal

```
 Start the SEPM service.
```

 This action will prevent launching of the Web Console until this mitigation is removed.

Symantec will be releasing the following IPS signatures

27803 Web Attack: Symantec Endpoint Manager XXE 2

27804 Web Attack: Symantec Endpoint Manager XSS

to detect/prevent attempts against these issues in SEPM. These detections will be available through normal Symantec security update channels.

Best Practices
As part of normal best practices, Symantec strongly recommends the following:

Restrict access to administrative or management systems to authorized privileged users.
Restrict remote access, if required, to trusted/authorized systems only.
Run under the principle of least privilege where possible to limit the impact of potential exploit.
Keep all operating systems and applications current with vendor patches.
Follow a multi-layered approach to security. At a minimum, run both firewall and anti-malware applications to provide multiple points of detection and protection to both inbound and outbound threats.
Deploy network- and host-based intrusion detection systems to monitor network traffic for signs of anomalous or suspicious activity. This may aid in the detection of attacks or malicious activity related to the exploitation of latent vulnerabilities.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Symantec would like to thank Stefan Viehbock with SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab for reporting these issues and working very closely with Symantec as they were addressed.

Symantec would like to thank Iñaki Rodriguez, @virtualminds_es, for reporting one of the cross-site scripting issues and working with Symantec as it was addressed.

REFERENCES

BID: Security Focus, http://www.securityfocus.com, has assigned Bugtraq IDs (BIDs) to these issues for inclusion in the Security Focus vulnerability database.

CVE: These issues are candidates for inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes names for security problems.