SUMMARY

Symantec's Web Gateway (SWG) Appliance management console is susceptible to operating system command injection by an authenticated but less-privileged user.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

NOTE:  Customers should always ensure they are running the latest updates available.

ISSUES

MITIGATION

Details

Symantec was notified of an OS command injection vulnerability in PHP script which impacts the SWG management console.  The results of successful exploitation could potentially range from unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data to possible unauthorized access to the Symantec Web Gateway Appliance.

Unauthenticated arbitrary commands can potentially be injected into existing application scripts accessible though the SWG console’s interface if the attacker already has some level of privileged access.  This issue is of limited scope and impact and has been addressed in SWG 5.2.2.

In a normal installation, the Symantec Web Gateway management interface should not be externally accessible from the network environment and would require access to the network either by an authorized network user or an external attacker able to leverage network access. 

Symantec Response

Symantec engineers have verified these issues and have addressed them in SWG 5.2.2.  Symantec continues to review related functionality in order to further enhance the overall security of the Symantec Web Gateway product.

Symantec has released Symantec Web Gateway 5.2.2, currently available to customers through normal support locations. Customers should ensure they are on this latest release.  To confirm customers are running the latest updates, check the "Current Software Version -> Current Version" on the Administration -> Updates page.  Alternatively, customers can click the "Check for Updates" button on the Administration -> Updates page to verify that they are running the latest software version.

Mitigation

Symantec will be releasing the following IPS signature:

·         Attack: Symantec Web Gateway Command Injection Vulnerability

These detections will be available through normal Symantec security update channels.

Best Practices

As part of normal best practices, Symantec strongly recommends:

• Restrict access to administration or management systems to privileged users.
• Disable remote access if not required or restrict it to trusted/authorized systems only.
• Where possible, limit exposure of application and web interfaces to trusted/internal networks only.
• Keep all operating systems and applications updated with the latest vendor patches.
• The Symantec Web Gateway software and any applications that are installed on the Symantec Web Gateway can ONLY be updated with authorized and tested versions distributed by Symantec.
• 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 thanks Egidio Romano, Secunia Research for reporting this issue and for providing full coordination while it was resolved by Symantec.

REFERENCES

BID: Security Focus, http://www.securityfocus.com, has assigned a Bugtraq ID (BID) to this issue for inclusion in the Security Focus vulnerability database.

CVE: This issue is a candidate for inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes names for security problems.