SUMMARY

Symantec's Workspace Virtualization, when activated/enabled on a client, is susceptible to a local access kernel elevation of privilege.  The application fails to do sufficient bounds checking when passing user input to the underlying operating system. This issue could potentially allow an authenticated but non-privileged local user to run arbitrary code with elevated privileges on the underlying system.  

Exploit code targeting this issue is public.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

ADDITIONAL PRODUCT INFORMATION

Non-Affected Products

ISSUES

Exploit Publicly Available:  Yes

MITIGATION

Details

Symantec is aware of a publicly posted local kernel elevation of privilege exploit against Symantec's Workspace Virtualization application.  The application does not do sufficient bounds checking prior to passing user data to the operating system.

NOTE: Symantec Workspace Virtualization is in a vulnerable state ONLY when at least one virtual application layer is enabled on the client system. A virtual application running in the active layer is not required but, the Symantec Workspace Virtualization application must be in the active mode.  Symantec Workspace Virtualization application installed on a client but not activated/enabled is NOT vulnerable to this issue.

An authorized but unprivileged user with a local account could attempt to run malicious code of their choosing on the host client system.  A non-authorized attacker would need to acquire unauthorized access to a local client account or be able to entice an authorized user to download malicious code to their system to execute when the application is active. Successful exploitation could potentially result in a system crash, access to unauthorized system information or possible elevation of privilege on the system.

Symantec Response
Symantec reviewed and validated this issue as impacting Symantec Workspace Virtualization.  Symantec strongly recommends customers upgrade to Symantec Workspace Virtualization version 6.4.1953.0 at their earliest opportunity to protect from any attempts to target this issue.

Symantec is not aware of exploitation of or adverse customer impact from this issue.

Update Information

Symantec Workspace Virtualization 6.4.1953.0 is available through customers' normal download locations,http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO85016.

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

• Restrict access of 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

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