SUMMARY

Symantec’s Altiris Deployment Solution and Notification Server install a vulnerable ActiveX control. Exploitation of this issue could possibly lead to unauthorized information disclosure, system information corruption or potentially allow arbitrary code execution in the context of the user’s browser. Successful exploitation would require user interaction.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

ISSUES

Severity

Medium

MITIGATION

Details

Symantec is aware of a vulnerable ActiveX control, AeXNSPkgDLLib.dll, being reported in Symantec’s Altiris Deployment Solution. This control also ships with the Altiris Notification Server / Symantec Management Platform. This control was not intended to be called externally. However, it uses an unsafe method that could potentially allow download and possible execution of arbitrary code on the host system. Unauthorized access to the vulnerable control could result in possible arbitrary code execution in the context of the user’s browser. The application this control resides on should not be accessible external to the network in a recommended installation. To attempt to exploit this issue, the host user would need to be enticed to download and execute code by visiting a malicious web site, internal or external to the network, or potentially through an html email that could effectively call the vulnerable control.

Symantec Response

Symantec engineers have verified these findings and released an update to resolve this issue. Symantec is not aware of any customer impact from this issue. 

Follow instructions and hotfix provided in Altiris Knowledge Base article 49069, available to customers athttps://kb.altiris.com/kb/article/viewArticle.asp?aid=49069 

Review the associated Knowledge Base article for information on possible impact of this fix to products built on Notification Server/Symantec Management Platform.

Mitigations

Symantec Security Response has released IPS/IDS signatures, 
23473 - HTTP Altiris Express File Overwrite 
50235 - MSIE Altiris Express File Overwrite 

to detect and block attempts to exploit this issue. Signatures are available through normal update channels.

Workaround

Disable attempts to instantiate the AeXNSPkgDLLib.dll ActiveX control CLSID {63716E93-033D-48B0-8A2F-8E8473FD7AC7} in Microsoft Internet Explorer by manually setting the kill bit for the control in the registry. Follow the steps outlined in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 240797 to manually set the kill bit for this control. 

Important: Symantec strongly recommends that you back up the registry before making any changes to it. Incorrect changes to the registry can result in permanent data loss or corrupted files. Modify the specified keys only. Read the document, "How to make a backup of the Windows registry," for instructions.

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

REFERENCES

Security Focus, http://www.securityfocus.com, has assigned Bugtraq ID (BID) 36346 to these issues for inclusion in the SecurityFocus vulnerability database. 

This issue is a candidate for inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes names for security problems. CVE-2009-3028 has been assigned to this issue.