Security

Microsoft released fixes on Tuesday for critical vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, including one for which exploit code has been released.

Adobe, meanwhile, was scheduled to release a critical update affecting Flash Player and Adobe AIR, following news of exploit code being released for a vulnerability in Illustrator CS3 and CS4 on Windows and Mac last week.

Microsoft's regular Patch Tuesday release includes six security bulletins addressing 12 vulnerabilities in IE, Windows, Windows Server, and Office.

However, priority should be given to the cumulative IE bulletin, which affects all major Windows versions including Windows 7, IE 6, IE 7, and IE 8. The bulletin fixes five holes that could allow an attacker to remotely take control over a system in drive-by download attacks. The fix also addresses a problem with ActiveX control built with Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) headers that could allow remote code execution.

"Vulnerabilities in IE are generally pretty serious because all you have to do is go to a Web page or get referred to one" that has malicious code on it, said Jason Avery, manager of the Digital Vaccine service at TippingPoint. Three of the IE holes were disclosed through TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative program over the summer, he said.

Another critical bulletin plugs holes in Windows' Internet Authentication Service and a third critical bulletin fixes a vulnerability in Microsoft Office Project. The three bulletins rated "important" fix holes in Windows involving the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service and Active Directory Federation Services, as well as a hole in WordPad and Office Text Converters.

The bulletins affect: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003, Server 2008, Office XP, Office 2003, Project 2000, Project 2002, Office Project 2003, Works 8.5, and Office Converter Pack.

This chart shows the priority in which Microsoft suggests deploying the latest patches. The cumulative IE bulletin is the most important.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Meanwhile, one bulletin rated "important" is being re-released to offer additional protections in the Domain Name Service for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 systems. It addresses vulnerabilities in the DNS client and DNS server that could allow a remote attacker to redirect network traffic intended for systems on the Internet to the attacker's own systems.

Microsoft also released two new security advisories related to Integrated Windows Authentication and Indeo Codec. The Indeo Codec update, which applies to Windows XP and Server 2003, blocks the codec from being used in IE and Windows Media Player in the Internet Zone, Microsoft said in a Technet post. And the Integrated Windows Authentication advisory includes several nonsecurity updates that implement Extended Protection for Authentication to protect authentication credentials on the Windows platform.

In addition, Microsoft updated its Malicious Software Removal Tool to detect and remove the Win32/Hamweq worm.

"What's missing from today's patch is the fix for an outstanding denial of service attack that affects Microsoft's newest operating systems; Windows 7 and 2008 Server," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle.

Microsoft said on Wednesday it is looking into a report of a vulnerability in Windows 7 and Server 2008 Release 2 that could be used by an attacker to remotely crash the computer.

The company is investigating claims of a "possible denial-of-service vulnerability in Windows Server Message Block (SMB)," the Microsoft spokesperson said, adding that the company was unaware of any attacks trying to exploit the hole.

The bug triggers an infinite loop on the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol used for sharing files in Windows, researcher Laurent Gaffié wrote in a posting on the Full-Disclosure mailing list and on a blog.

"Whatever your firewall is set to, you can get remotely smashed via IE or even via some broadcasting NBNS [NetBIOS Naming Service] tricks," Gaffié wrote.

Gaffié also posted proof-of-concept code for the "Windows 7, Server 2008R2 Remote Kernel Crash."

On Tuesday, Microsoft issued six patches to fix 15 vulnerabilities, including a critical hole in the Windows kernel, as part of November's Patch Tuesday.

A zero-day flaw in the TLS and SSL protocols, which are commonly used to encrypt Web pages, has been made public.

Security researchers Marsh Ray and Steve Dispensa unveiled the TLS (Transport Layer Security) flaw on Wednesday, following the disclosure of separate, but similar, security findings. TLS and its predecessor, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), are typically used by online retailers and banks to provide security for Web transactions.

Ray, who works with Dispensa at two-factor authentication company PhoneFactor, explained in a blog post this week that he had initially discovered the flaw in August and demonstrated a working exploit to Dispensa at the beginning of September.

Read more of "Zero-day flaw found in web encryption" at ZDNet UK.

Adobe on Tuesday released a security bulletin that includes fixes for 28 vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Acrobat, including a critical hole that has reportedly been exploited in the wild in limited attacks.

Affected software includes version 9.1.3 of Reader and Acrobat; Acrobat 8.1.6 for Windows, Macintosh, and Unix; and version 7.1.3 of Reader and Acrobat for Windows and Macintosh. The vulnerabilities could cause the applications to crash and could allow an attacker to take control of a user's computer.

Adobe recommends that people update to Adobe Reader 9.2 and Acrobat 9.2, or Acrobat 8.1.7 or Acrobat 7.1.4. For Adobe Reader users who cannot update to Adobe Reader 9.2, Adobe has provided the Adobe Reader 8.1.7 and Adobe Reader 7.1.4 updates.

One of the updates addresses a hole that Trend Micro says has been exploited by a Trojan horse that arrives as a PDF file containing malicious JavaScript. That exploit affects Microsoft Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, and Server 2003, according to Trend Micro.

"All users of Adobe Reader or Acrobat will need to update their software with today's release because these updates include fixes for the most critical kind of bugs," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle.

This is Adobe's second quarterly security update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat.

Also on Tuesday, Microsoft issued a security advisory with a record number of bulletins, including the first fixes for critical holes in Windows 7.

Microsoft released a record number of 13 bulletins for 34 vulnerabilities on Patch Tuesday--and the first critical update for Windows 7--as well as fixes for zero-day flaws involving Server Message Block (SMB) and Internet Information Services (IIS).

The most severe of the three SMB flaws, which were first reported last month, could allow an attacker to take control of a computer remotely by sending a specially crafted SMB packet to a computer running the Server service. Exploit code for one of the SMB holes has been posted to the Web, Microsoft said.

Windows 7 is affected by two critical patches intended to mend vulnerabilities that could allow remote code execution if a malicious Web page were viewed, one part of a cumulative security update for Internet Explorer and the other in .Net Framework and Silverlight.

The official release date for Windows 7 is October 22, but the new operating system has been available to some large businesses with volume licenses since the summer. The code was finalized in July.

Other critical patches in the security bulletin for October fix a vulnerability in Windows Media Runtime that could be exploited if a user opened a malicious media file or received malicious streaming content from a Web site or application, and if a specially crafted ASF (Advanced Systems Format) file is played using Windows Media Player 6.4.

Among the critical updates: a cumulative security update of ActiveX Kill Bits that is being exploited and that affects ActiveX controls compiled using Active Template Library (ATL); and another patch resolving several vulnerabilities in ATL ActiveX Controls that could allow remote code execution if a user loaded a malicious component or control. ActiveX and ATLs were the subject of an emergency patch Microsoft released in July.

The final critical bulletin fixes a hole in Windows GDI+ (Graphics Device Interface) that could allow an attacker to take control of a computer if the user viewed a malicious image file using affected software or browsed a malicious Web page.

"Microsoft has repeatedly had to fix problems related to the Graphics Device Interface in Windows, and vulnerabilities in the component have been exploited broadly in the past. We can expect that security researchers will be looking to reverse-engineer today's patches, which may very well lead to exploits being created," said Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications at McAfee Labs.

Related "For the Record" podcast, with Symantec's Ben Greenbaum
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Nine of the vulnerabilities were previously disclosed, which meant that attackers had time to come up with so-called "zero-day" exploits before the patches were available, Marcus noted.

The most alarming vulnerability in the mix is the SMB flaw, which was introduced by the patch for a different vulnerability, according to Josh Phillips, virus researcher at Kaspersky Lab.

Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle, said the bug that is likely to have the biggest impact will be the critical one that affects Windows Media Runtime and involves a speech codec bug that has limited exploits in the wild. "This is a typical file-parsing issue and similar to vulnerabilities that have allowed attackers to create drive-by attacks that infect unsuspecting video viewers," he said.

Meanwhile, the critical SMB vulnerability is relatively difficult to exploit given default firewall conditions, but the IIS bugs are easy to exploit, Storms added.

"The sheer volume of the bulletins and patches is extreme," said Jason Miller, senior data team leader for Shavlik Technologies. "This is really going to affect administrators. It's going to be very challenging because of the time and research that's going to be needed" to patch systems.

Also released were five bulletins rated "important" to fix vulnerabilities in IIS, for which exploit code has been publicly released and for which there have been limited attacks, along with Windows CryptoAPI, Windows Indexing Service, Windows Kernel, and Local Security Authority Subsystem Service.

The update for Windows CryptoAPI relates to flaws in the way domain names are verified on the Internet, which could allow attackers to impersonate a site and steal information from unsuspecting Web surfers. The holes were revealed by researchers Dan Kaminsky and Moxie Marlinspike at Defcon in August.

Affected software includes Windows 7; Windows 2000; Windows XP; Windows Vista; Server 2003 and 2008; Office XP, 2003, and 2007; Microsoft Office System; SQL Server 2000 and 2005; Silverlight; Visual Studio .Net 2003; Visual Studio 2005 and 2008; Visual FoxPro 8.0 and 9.0; Microsoft Report Viewer 2005 and 2008; Forefront Client Security 1.0; and Office software including Visio, Project, Word Viewer, and Works.

The installation also removes the Win/FakeScanti Trojan, which displays fake malware warnings and then asks computer users to pay for fake antivirus software.

(For more information and analysis from Symantec, listen to my colleague Larry Magid's podcast.)

Update: This story was updated at 2:15 p.m. PDT with additional comment and at 11:47 a.m. PDT with more details and reaction from experts.

A new zero-day exploit targeting Adobe Reader, as well as 9.1.3 and earlier versions of Adobe Systems' Acrobat, drops a backdoor onto computers using JavaScript, Trend Micro researchers warned on Friday.

Trend Micro identified the exploit as a Trojan horse dubbed "Troj_Pidief.Uo" in a blog post. It arrives as a PDF file containing JavaScript-based malware, "Js_Agent.Dt," and then drops a backdoor called "Bkdr_Protux.Bd."

The exploit affects Microsoft Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, and Server 2003, according to Trend Micro.

The blog post provides technical details on how the malware works, specifically the activity of its shell code, the piece of code that delivers the payload. The JavaScript is used to execute arbitrary codes in a technique known as "heap spraying."

"Based on our findings, the shell code (that was heap-sprayed) jumps to another shell code inside the PDF file" before extracting and executing the backdoor, Trend Micro said. The backdoor "is also embedded in the PDF file and not the usual file downloaded from the Web."

Variants of the Protux backdoor typically provide an attacker unrestricted user-level access to a compromised machine and previously exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office files, according to Trend Micro.

Adobe announced on Thursday that it would release an update to fix the hole on Tuesday, the same day as Microsoft's Patch Tuesday.

This screenshot shows the embedded executable file in the PDF file, after it has been decrypted.

(Credit: Trend Micro)

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it is investigating reports of a zero-day vulnerability affecting Windows 7 and Vista.

The flaw in Windows 7 could allow an attack which would cause a critical system error, or "blue screen of death," according to researcher Laurent Gaffie.

Gaffie wrote in his blog that the flaw lies in a Server Message Block 2 (SMB2) driver.

"SRV2.SYS fails to handle malformed SMB headers for the NEGOTIATE PROTOCOL REQUEST functionality," wrote Gaffie in a blog post Monday.

Gaffie said he had contacted Microsoft. Comments on his blog by other users said that the flaw could lead not only to denial of service, but could also lead to remote code execution.

Microsoft said in a statement on Tuesday that it was investigating, but said it is "currently unaware of any attacks trying to use the claimed vulnerability or of customer impact."

Computer security publication "The H" wrote on Tuesday that its German sister publication had tested the proof-of-concept code, and that while the exploit had caused a reboot on Vista, the exploit had not worked on Windows 7.

Metasploit creator HD Moore said in a tweet on Tuesday that an SMB bug appeared to have been introduced into Vista SP1. Coder Josh Goebel said in a blog post that he had added the exploit code to Metasploit.

Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London. CNET News' Ina Fried contributed to this report.

(Credit: Adobe)

Adobe said Thursday that it will issue fixes next week for a critical hole in Flash that is being exploited in attacks against Adobe Reader version 9 on Windows.

The vulnerability exists in current versions of Flash Player for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux and the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat v9.x for those same platforms, Adobe said in an advisory.

The vulnerability could cause a system to crash or allow an attacker to take control of the computer, Adobe said.

An update for Flash Player v9 and v10 for Windows, Mac, and Linux will be released by July 30, while a fix for Solaris is pending. Adobe should have an update for Reader and Acrobat v9.1.2 for Windows, Macintosh, and Unix by July 31.

An attacker can exploit the vulnerability by luring someone to a Web site hosting a specially crafted Shockwave Flash file, US-CERT said in an advisory Thursday.

"The Adobe Flash browser plug-in is available for multiple Web browsers and operating systems, any of which could be affected," CERT said. "An attacker could also create a PDF document that has an embedded SWF file to exploit the vulnerability. This vulnerability is being actively exploited."

The vulnerabilities can be mitigated by disabling the Flash plug-in or by using the NoScript extension for Mozilla Firefox or SeaMonkey to whitelist sites that can access the Flash plug-in, CERT said.

To disable Flash, US-CERT recommends:

• Disabling Flash in Adobe Reader 9 on Windows platforms by renaming the following files: "%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\authplay.dll" and "%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\rt3d.dll".

• Disabling Flash Player or selectively enabling Flash content as described in the "Securing Your Web Browser" document.

"Deleting, renaming, or removing access to the authplay.dll file that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat v9.x mitigates the threat for those products, but users will experience a non-exploitable crash or error message when opening a PDF that contains SWF (Shockwave Flash) content," the Adobe advisory said.

Typically, the authplay.dll that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x for Windows is located at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\authplay.dll or C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0]\Acrobat\authplay.dll, Adobe said.

Windows Vista users can mitigate the impact of the exploit by enabling UAC (User Access Control), according to Adobe. Flash Player users should be careful when browsing unfamiliar Web sites.

Researchers on Wednesday reported that they had uncovered attacks in the wild in which malicious Acrobat PDF files were exploiting a vulnerability in Flash and dropping a Trojan onto computers.

The bug used in the exploit has been around since December 2008.

Researchers on Wednesday said they have uncovered attacks in the wild in which malicious Acrobat PDF files are exploiting a vulnerability in Flash and dropping a Trojan onto computers.

The situation could affect tons of users since Flash exists in all popular browsers, is available in PDF files, and is largely operating system-independent.

Any software that uses Flash could be vulnerable to the attack, according to Symantec. Adobe Reader is vulnerable because its Flash interpreter is vulnerable, said Paul Royal, principal researcher at Purewire, a Web security services provider.

In a post on its Web site, Adobe said it "is aware of reports of a potential vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.1.2 and Adobe Flash Player 9 and 10. We are currently investigating this potential issue and will have an update once we get more information."

"The authors of the exploit have managed to take a bug and turn it into a reliable exploit using a heap spray technique," Patrick Fitzgerald writes on a Symantec Security blog post.

"Typically an attacker would entice a user to visit a malicious Web site or send a malicious PDF via e-mail," he writes. "Once the unsuspecting user visits the Web site or opens the PDF this exploit will allow further malware to be dropped onto the victim's machine. The malicious PDF files are detected as Trojan.Pidief.G and the dropped files as Trojan Horse."

It appears the exploit was first developed about two weeks ago, Royal said. The bug itself has been around since December 2008.

The hole is exploitable on Windows XP and Vista users are protected if User Account Control (UAC) is enabled, Symantec said.

US-CERT offered information about workarounds on its Web site:

• Disable Flash in Adobe Reader 9 on Windows platforms by renaming the following files: "%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\authplay.dll" and "%ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\rt3d.dll".

• Disable Flash Player or selectively enable Flash content as described in the "Securing Your Web Browser" document.