TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative
 

Symantec Multiple Products VRTSweb.exe Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI-09-098: December 9th, 2009

CVE ID

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

TippingPoint™ IPS Customer Protection

TippingPoint IPS customers are protected against this vulnerability by Digital Vaccine protection filter ID 8265. For further product information on the TippingPoint IPS:

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of multiple Symantec products. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability.

The specific flaw exists within the VRTSweb.exe Web Server component which listens by default on TCP ports 8181, 8443, and 14300. The process fails to properly validate an authentication request made to port 14300. By providing a specific request an attacker can bypass the authentication and instruct the process to unpack and execute data within an arbitrary WAR file. This can be leveraged to execute arbitrary code under the context of the SYSTEM user.

Vendor Response

Symantec has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:

Disclosure Timeline

    2009-03-26 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2009-12-09 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    Anonymous