Posted on 03/08/2005 9:07:44 AM PST by Disambiguator
Crackers are using a security vulnerability in Symantec's enterprise products to redirect surfers to websites hosting malicious code. The main vector of the DNS cache poisoning attack, detected by the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Centre on 4 March, has been traced back to a vulnerability affecting Symantec firewalls with DNS caching.
Symantec has issued a hotfix for its Symantec Enterprise Firewall and Enterprise Security Gateway appliance products. Even users who applied a July 2004 fix to correct a previous DNS cache poisoning problem are advised to revisit the issue. A few non-Symantec users reported similar issues, so the problem is not solely confined to Symantec firewall users. The SANS Institute, which is tracking the issue, has issued general advice on dealing with the problem.
As a result of the attack, enterprise users visiting popular domain names such as google.com, ebay.com, and weather.com were redirected to servers hosting malware (the ABX toolbar spyware). The spyware was loaded using an ActiveX-controlled blocked by XP SP2, but other Windows shops will have to clean up client machines as well as patch enterprise systems.
> Crackers are using a security vulnerability in
> Symantec's enterprise products ...
As the protection products become more effective, they
themselves will become targets for crackers.
I had an event on a home PC a couple of weeks ago that
suggested someone is honing an attack on Norton Anti-Virus.
An alert popped that a Symantec DLL had been discovered to
be infected with Bloodhound.w32.4, which is a placeholder
name for a threat Symantec hasn't properly identified yet.
NAV wouldn't run, because another Sym DLL had been
completely destroyed, and I couldn't update my definitions
because the local copy of my subscription expiration date
had been reset to circa 1897!
Uninstalling NAV, reinstalling from CD, and updating defs
appeared to clean it all up. A full scan found nothing.
ZoneAlarm hasn't reported anything trying to phone home.
Unfortunately, I didn't record enough detail to file a
report with Sym.
Reason # 238,987 not to use ANY 'blows product.
"It just sucks"
"been reset to circa 1897! "
You can reset the date with the "date" command in a command prompt window. The lack of update due to a date issue is easily overcome with a temporary date alteration.
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