SUMMARY

Symantec products that ship a third-party Autonomy KeyView module have updated the module to address a vulnerability in the processing of Excel spreadsheets reported against the KeyView module.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

Note: 

Symantec DLP 7.x Enforce/Detection Servers are affected. DLP 7.x Endpoint Agents are NOT affected. 

Symantec DLP customers that need to update Symantec DLP 8.1 Enforce/Detection Servers or Endpoint Agents MUST first update to Symantec DLP v8.1.1. 

Following application of the v8.1.1 upgrade apply the Symantec DLP 8.1.x hotfixes identified above.

ADDITIONAL PRODUCT INFORMATION

Products Not Affected

ISSUES

Severity

Medium 

NOTE: SMSME, DLP, SMSSMTP and SMS/BrightMail Appliances run the Autonomy KeyView module out-of- process with limited privileges further reducing the impact of this issue on most affected Symantec applications

MITIGATION

Details

iDefense Labs notified Symantec of a buffer overflow vulnerability reported against the Autonomy KeyView module shipped and installed with identified Symantec products. The overflow can occur during the processing of incoming specifically formatted Microsoft Excel spreadsheet documents.

Symantec Response

Symantec product engineers have implemented updates for this issue in all affected product versions. In many of the affected Symantec products, the Autonomy KeyView module processes have been separated from the Symantec application processes (handled out-of-process) with limited privileges on the system. This out-of-process method specifically addresses these types of security concerns. Any attempt to exploit the Autonomy KeyView module results in process termination of the offending thread and an error message generated to and handled by the specific application. 

Symantec knows of no exploitation of or adverse customer impact from these issues.

Update Information

Updates will be available from your normal support/download locations. 

SMS 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. 

Symantec DLP updates are available for download through secure file exchange.

Mitigation/Workaround

Mitigation 
Symantec Security Response has released a Bloodhound detection, Bloodhound.Exploit.243, to detect and block attempts to exploit this issue. Detections are available through LiveUpdate or from the Symantec Security Response download site, http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/definitions.jsp. 

Temporary Workaround for Symantec Mail Security for Domino 
Installations of SMS for Domino 7.5 and 8.0 that do not utilize the Content Filtering capabilities of the product are not susceptible to this issue. SMS for Domino 7.5 and 8.0 would be susceptible only if the attachment content scanning option is enabled. 

As an interim workaround, administrators unable to upgrade to the recommended solution may 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. 

To disable the content filtering rules for Symantec Mail Security for Domino

• 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
• 
  Temporary Workaround for Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange Installations of SMS for Microsoft Exchange 5.x that do not utilize the Content Filtering capabilities of the product are not susceptible. SMS for Microsoft Exchange 5.x is susceptible only if the attachment content scanning option is enabled. 
  
  As an interim workaround, administrators unable to upgrade to the recommended solution may 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. 
• To disable the content filtering rules for SMS for Microsoft Exchange:
• 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"

Temporary Workaround for Symantec Mail Security for SMTP and Symantec Mail Security/Brightmail Gateway Appliance 
Risk from this vulnerability is limited on installations of SMS for SMTP and SMS Appliance in which the attachment content scanning option is enabled.However, installations that do not utilize the Content Filtering capabilities of the product are not susceptible to this issue. 

As an interim workaround, administrators unable to upgrade to the recommended solution may 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. 

To disable the content filtering rules for SMS for SMTP and SMS Appliance 5.x: 

• Log into the management console and navigate to:
• Settings >> Email Scanning >> Scanning
• Disable the item "Enable searching of non-plain text attachments for words in dictionaries", by deselecting the checkbox, and saving
• Disable any Compliance policies with a condition "If the Attachment content . . ."
• 
  To disable the content filtering rules for SMS/SBM Gateway Appliance after 5.x: 
• Log into the management console and navigate to the SMTP Scanning Settings screen
• Disable the item "Enable searching of non-plain text attachments for words in dictionaries", by deselecting the checkbox, and saving
• Disable any Compliance policies with a condition:
  • "If any part of the message matches" (or "does not match") a regular expression, pattern or Record Resource.
  • "If text in Attachment content part of the message . . . "

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

This issue is credited to Joshua J. Drake with iDefense Labs.

REFERENCES

Security Focus, http://www.securityfocus.com, has assigned a Bugtraq ID (BID) 36042 to this issue for inclusion in the Security Focus vulnerability database. 

This issue is a candidate for inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes names for security problems. CVE-2009-3037 has been assigned to this issue.

REVISION

9/9/2009 Updated the CVE ID assigned to this issue.