SUMMARY

Multiple buffer overflow vulnerabilities have been identified in the Autonomy KeyView module used in Symantec’s Mail Security products.

Severity
Medium

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

ADDITIONAL PRODUCT INFORMATION

Products Not Affected

† All supported localized versions are available..

ISSUES

Details
Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Autonomy KeyView module shipped with the Symantec Mail Security products. The KeyView module is used to perform content filtering. If exploited, these vulnerabilities could potentially lead to a product denial of service and if successfully exploited potential remote code execution and possible system compromise.

The following file types are associated with this vulnerability:

• Adobe Acrobat FrameMaker (.mif)
• Ami Pro (.sam)
• Applix Words (.aw)
• Applix Presents (.ag)
• Dynamic Link Library (.dll)
• FrameMaker (.mif)
• Microsoft Rich Text Format (.rtf)
• Microsoft Word - (.doc)
• Microsoft Word for DOS (.doc)
• Portable Executable (.exe)
• WordPerfect (.wpd)

Secunia Security Advisory SA27367: http://secunia.com/advisories/27367/
Secunia Security Advisory SA27429: http://secunia.com/advisories/27429/
Secunia Security Advisory SA27388: http://secunia.com/advisories/27388/

SecurityFocus, http://www.securityfocus.com, has assigned a Bugtraq ID(BID) to this issue for inclusion in the SecurityFocus vulnerability data base. The BID assigned is 26175 which can be found at http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/26175.

MITIGATION

Symantec Response
Symantec engineers have worked with Autonomy to identify these vulnerabilities and have fixed all affected products and made updates available for download.

Upgrade Information
Symantec Mail Security for Domino and Microsoft Exchange updates are available through the Platinum Support Web Site for Platinum customers or through the FileConnect -Electronic Software Distribution web site.

Mitigations for Symantec Mail Security for Domino:

• Installations of Symantec Mail Security 7.5 for Domino that are not utilizing the Content Filtering capabilities of the product are not vulnerable.
• ONLY customers that are utilizing the attachment content scanning option within their content filtering rules are vulnerable.
   
• To disable the content filtering rules for Symantec Mail Security for Domino
   
  • Administrators are advised to disable content filtering rules that contain parameters that specify scanning of attachment content
     
  • The rules do not need to be deleted, only disabled until the updated release is installed
     
    • Select the "Content Filtering" tab to display the list of current enabled rules
       
    • Click on the checkmark to the left of any rules that utilize attachment content filtering, changing it to a red "X", and disabling the rule

Mitigations for Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange

• Installations of Symantec Mail Security 5.x for Exchange that are not utilizing the Content Filtering capabilities of the product are not vulnerable.
• ONLY customers that are utilizing the attachment content scanning option within their content filtering rules are vulnerable.
   
• To Disable the content filtering rules for Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange
   
  • Administrators are advised to disable content filtering rules that contain parameters that specify scanning of attachment content
     
  • The rules do not need to be deleted, only disabled until the updated release is installed
     
    • Select the "Policies" tab and then choose 'Content Filtering" to display the list of currently enabled rules
       
    • Ensure that all rules using attachment content are 'disabled'

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

• Restrict access to administration or management systems to 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 exploit by threats.
• Keep all operating systems and applications updated with the latest vendor patches.
• Follow a multi-layered approach to security. Run both firewall and anti-malware applications, at a minimum, 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 detection of attacks or malicious activity related to exploitation of latent vulnerabilities

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Symantec would like to acknowledge Secunia at http://secunia.com/ for identifying these issues.

REVISION

Revision History
Nov. 2, 2007 - Updated Products Not Affected table
Dec. 11, 2007 - Added information for SMS for Domino (English only) update
Dec. 19, 2007 - Added information for SMS for Microsoft Exchange (English only) update
Dec. 21, 2007 - Added information for supported localized advisories
Jan. 14, 2007 - Updated Symantec Response to identify that all updates are available.