4 X Security Team

Oracle has dropped the first quarterly critical patch update for 2009 — with patches for 41 vulnerabilities in a wide range of database server products.

The January 2009 CPU includes 20 new security fixes for the company’s flagship database product lines, 4 new security fixes for the Oracle Application Server, 9 vulnerabilities in Oracle Secure Backup, 4 new security fixes for the Oracle Applications Suite, and 6 new security fixes for the PeopleSoft and JDEdwards Suite.

On the Oracle Database side, here’s a breakdown of the main patches:

• 10 new security fixes for the Oracle Database. None of these vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication, i.e. may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password. 2 of these fixes are applicable to client-only installations, i.e. installations that do not have an Oracle Database installed.
• 9 new security fixes for the Oracle Secure Backup product. All of these vulnerabilities may be remotely exploitable without authentication, i.e. may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password.
• 1 new security fix for the Oracle TimesTen Data Server. This vulnerability is remotely exploitable without authentication, i.e. may be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password.

According to Alexander Kornbrust from Red Database Security, the most critical bug could allow any user with execute privileges on dbms_ijob (e.g. DBA or hacker/user with DBA privs) to bypass Oracle Auditing completely.

This means no traces in the AUD$ and/or the operating system! All databases are affected.

Risk matrix definitions, including CVSS scores for all the vulnerabilities, are included in Oracle’s advisory.

* Image source: Oracle Security at Amazon.com.

[Source: zdnet]

Google has quietly released a pre-beta version of Google Chrome 2.0 with a new HTTPS-only browsing mode.

The new feature lets users add “force-https to your Google Chrome shortcut” to only load Web sites with valid security certificates. “Sites with SSL certificate errors will not load,” the company explained.

The newest Chrome release also updates the WebKit and V8 JavaScript engines, offers a better implementation for SafeBrowsing (malware/phishing protection), and new code for the HTTP network protocol.

Google’s release notes provide more detail on the changes.

ALSO SEE:

• Google Chrome, the security tidbits
• Google Chrome vulnerable to carpet-bombing flaw
• Google hires browser hacking guru

[Source: zdnet]

In the wake of this morning’s 25C3 presentation by Alex Sotirov and Jacob Appelbaum, most of the coverage I’ve read so far has focused on the technical details and real-world impact of their findings. Rightly so — their paper describing the attack is a fascinating read filled with enough gory details to make any security practitioner salivate.

To summarize, the crux of the attack was the fact that certain certificate authorities (CAs) still use the MD5 algorithm to sign SSL certificates. The researchers exploited this implementation by harnessing some existing academic research on MD5 chosen-prefix collisions and sprinkling in a few additional tricks.

The most frustrating part of this whole debacle is that it should have never happened.

Like any widely-used cipher, MD5 has been scoured for weaknesses by crypt-analysts since its introduction in 1991. The first significant cracks in the surface appeared at the CRYPTO 2004 conference in August 2004, when Xiaoyun Wang presented a paper entitled Collisions for Hash Functions that described a method for producing MD5 collisions.

[ SEE: SSL broken! Hackers create rogue CA certificate using MD5 collisions ]

History has shown repeatedly that cryptanalysis is an evolutionary process. Each subsequent compromise builds on top of prior work, and each new attack is more practical than the last. The Wang presentation should have been a wake-up call that the clock was ticking on MD5. But, aside from the security community, nobody paid much attention.

At the time, I was employed as a security consultant for @stake, and I can remember revising all of our deliverable templates to remove any mention of MD5 from our best practices or boilerplate text. Even some of my own colleagues were split on whether that was necessary, since the attack didn’t have any practical implications yet. I agreed that we had no reason to act like the sky was falling, but it would only be a matter of time until a practical attack would be discovered. As such, our customers should be advised, at the very least, to eradicate MD5 from their code going forward.

But people tend to be lazy. The typical enterprise mindset can best be summarized as “if it can’t hurt me today, stop bothering me,” and that probably won’t change anytime soon. For an enterprise application, the risk is bounded. If you choose to use a weak hash algorithm in your custom web application, you only hurt yourself and your customers. Apparently, that is a risk people are willing to take, even though switching hash algorithms is a fairly trivial code modification.

A few years later, right on cue, Marc Stevens released a master’s thesis entitled On Collisions in MD5 (.pdf), detailing a chosen-prefix attack against MD5. This was a significant breakthrough and one crucial step closer to the practical, real-world attack revealed today in Berlin.

It’s an absolute travesty that the CAs failed to act not only on the Wang research, but on every other MD5 attack that has materialized since. Any organization who is in the business of selling trust should take all possible measures to be trustworthy, and the CAs failed miserably in that regard.

* Chris Eng is senior director of security research at Veracode. He is currently removing root CAs from his web browser.

[Source: zdnet]

Guest post by John Viega

Today there’s been a lot of buzz about the clever new attack on public key infrastructure from Alex Sotirov and a team of researchers. In the attack, the bad guy ends up with his own Certification Authority (CA) that is fully trusted according to every major browser. People are declaring the entire Internet is broken, and that it will be hard to fix. This is simply not true.

The major misconception I’m seeing over and over is that the problem allows the bad guy to steal the signature off any valid MD5 signature from any certificate on the Internet.

[ SEE: SSL broken! Hackers create rogue CA certificate ]

Actually, the attack works by a bad guy generating two certificates, one that is just a regular web site certificate, and the other that is a CA certificate. Then, to get the CA certificate trusted, the bad guy submits the web site cert. If he can predict the internal values the CA will use when he starts generating the certificate (a process that takes a few days right now), then he will get back a signature that can be pasted onto the CA cert. That allows the CA to generate new certs to impersonate anybody on the Internet (e.g., Citibank.com).

This means that existing certificates aren’t currently an attack vector, unless they were actually used in an attack.

As a result, this hole is easier to close than people think. The few CAs signing certs with MD5 need to switch to SHA1 (or something stronger). That immediately gets rid of the problem for new certs.

[ Chris Eng: An easy fix ignored ]

For old certs, the risks are also pretty low. Just because of the up-front costs of research and development that would have been necessary, there’s a very good chance that bad guys have focused on low-hanging fruit like social engineering, instead of investing the research dollars.

Once the researchers publish technical details on the tricks they used to make the attack cost effective, then probably some bad guys will try, as long as there are still vulnerable CAs. My guess is that there won’t be.

Even if some bad guys have done all the work, it’s unlikely to have been used more than a handful of times. Either the bad guys will use their fake CA credentials selectively as to not get caught, or they will get caught quickly, and the certs will be blacklisted. Either way, the long term risks are negligible, as long as all CAs migrate from MD5 immediately, or take other precautionary measures, such as using a random certificate ID instead of a sequential one.

And for those CAs that don’t take mitigating steps immediately, the operating systems and browsers of the world should move to blacklist them ASAP.

Right now, the only CA that seems to consistently sign using only MD5 (signing with both also thwarts this attack) is RapidSSL/FreeSSL (FreeSSL is owned by RapidSSL, and is used for trial certs). Who knows why these guys have not migrated away from MD5. But assuming they do it soon, there is little to worry about.

* John Viega is CEO of Stonewall Software and author of several security books including the classic Building Secure Software (Addison Wesley, 2001), and the forthcoming Myths of Security (O’Reilly, 2009). Follow him on Twitter.

Source: zdnet]

Using computing power from a cluster of 200 PS3 game consoles and about $700 in test digital certificates, a group of hackers in the U.S. and Europe have found a way to target a known weakness in the MD5 algorithm to create a rogue Certification Authority (CA), a breakthrough that allows the forging of certificates that are fully trusted by all modern Web browsers.

The research, which will be presented today by Alex Sotirov (top left) and Jacob Appelbaum (bottom left) at the 25C3 conference in Germany, effectively defeats the way modern Web browsers trust secure Web sites and provides a way for attackers to conduct phishing attacks that are virtually undetectable.

The research is significant because there are at least six CAs currently using the weak MD5 cryptographic algorithm in digital signatures and certificates. The most commonly used Web browsers — including Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox — whitelist these CAs, meaning that a fake Certificate Authority can display any site as secure (with the SSL padlock).

“We basically broke SSL,” Sotirov said in an interview ahead of his 25C3 presentation.

Our main result is that we are in possession of a “rogue” Certification Authority (CA) certificate. This certificate will be accepted as valid and trusted by many browsers, as it appears to be based on one of the “root CA certificates” present in the so called “trust list” of the browser. In turn, web site certificates issued by us and based on our rogue CA certificate will be validated and trusted as well. Browsers will display these web sites as “secure”, using common security indicators such as a closed padlock in the browser’s window frame, the web address starting with “https://” instead of “http://”, and displaying reassuring phrases such as “This certificate is OK ” when the user clicks on security related menu items, buttons or links.

Researchers at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in the Netherlands, EPFL in Switzerland, and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands helped in the design and implementation of the attack using an advanced implementation of a known MD5 collision construction and a cluster of more than 200 PlayStation 3 game consoles.

According to Sotirov, a rogue CA in combination with Dan Kaminsky’s DNS attack can have serious consequences:

For example, without being aware of it, users could be redirected to malicious sites that appear exactly the same as the trusted banking or e-commerce websites they believe to be visiting. The web browser could then receive a forged certificate that will be erroneously trusted, and users’ passwords and other private data can fall in the wrong hands. Besides secure websites and email servers, the weakness also affects other commonly used software.

Sotirov said the team was able to secure NDAs in advance of briefing the major browser vendors about the problem but because of issues — some practical and some political — there are no straightforward fixes unless the CAs stop using MD5 and move to the more secure SHA-1 algorithm.

To avoid abuse, the team back-dated its rogue CA (it was set only for August 2004) and will not release the private key. “We’re also not going to release the special code that we used to do the MD5 collisions until later this year,” Sotirov added.

“We don’t anticipate this attack to be repeatable very easily. If you do a naive implementation, you would need six months to run it successfully,” he added.

Arjen Lenstra, head of EPFL’s Laboratory for Cryptologic Algorithms, the key objective of the research was to stimulate better Internet security with adequate protocols that provide the necessary security.

The key takeaway, according to Lenstra: “It’s imperative that browsers and CAs stop using MD5, and migrate to more robust alternatives such as SHA-2 and the upcoming SHA-3 standard.”

Further details:

• Detailed explanation
• Slides from the 25c3 presentation
• Demo site (set your system date to August 2004 before clicking)

Colliding certificates:

• Real certificate
• Rogue CA certificate

[Source: zdnet]

Google has seeded a new version of its Chrome browser to developers with fixes for a pair of security issues that could expose users to data theft.

The issue, rated as a “moderate” risk could allow hackers to use HTML files to steal arbitrary files from a victim’s machine.

Details below:

• r4188 and r4827 Address an issue with downloaded HTML files being able to read other files on your computer and send them to sites on the Internet. We now prevent local files from connecting to the network using XMLHttpRequest() and also prompt you to confirm a download if it is an HTML file.
  • Severity: Moderate. If a user could be enticed to open a downloaded HTML file, this flaw could be exploited to send arbitrary files to an attacker.

The patch, which will eventually be rolled out via Chrome’s automatic update feature, also adds new features around bookmarking and pop-up blocking.

[Source: zdnet]

That nifty password management feature in your favorite Web browser could be helping identity thieves pilfer your personal data.

That’s the biggest takeaway from the results of this test which shows that all the major Web browsers — including IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome — are vulnerable to a total of 20 vulnerabilities that could expose password-related information. Among the problems are three in particular that, when combined, allow password thieves to take passwords without the user’s knowledge. They are:

1. The destination where passwords are sent is not checked.
2. The location where passwords are requested is not checked.
3. Invisible form elements can trigger password management.

Google’s shiny new Chrome browser was among the worst offenders. According to the study, Chrome’s password manager contains multiple unpatched issues that “form a toxic soup of potential vulnerabilities that can coalesce into broad insecurity.”

Apple’s Safari for Windows browser was also failed a majority of the tests (click image for full version):

Technical details of the test, which was conducted by Chapin Information Services, can be found here.

[Source: zdnet]

Apple has released a peck of patches to cover at least 21 documented security vulnerabilities affecting Mac OS X users.

With its eighth security update for 2008, the company shipped fixes for flaws that could lead to remote code execution and denial-of-service attacks . The patch batch also covers a range of serious vulnerabilities in the Adobe Flash Player plug-in.

Here’s the raw skinny on Security Update 2008-008/Mac OS X v10.5.6:

• CVE-2008-4236: An infinite loop may occur in the Apple Type Services server’s handling of embedded fonts in PDF files. Viewing or downloading a PDF file containing a maliciously crafted embedded font may lead to a denial of service. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of embedded fonts. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.5.
• CVE-2008-4217: A signedness issue exists in BOM’s handling of CPIO headers which may result in a stack buffer overflow. Downloading or viewing a maliciously crafted CPIO archive may lead to arbitrary code execution or unexpected application termination. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of CPIO headers.
• CVE-2008-3623: A heap buffer overflow exists in the handling of color spaces within CoreGraphics. Viewing a maliciously crafted image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue through improved bounds checking.
• CVE-2008-317: Safari allows web sites to set cookies for country-specific top-level domains, which may allow a remote attacker to perform a session fixation attack and hijack a user’s credentials. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of domain names.
• CVE-2008-4234: Mac OS X provides the Download Validation capability to indicate potentially unsafe files. Applications such as Safari and others use Download Validation to help warn users prior to launching files marked as potentially unsafe. This update adds to the list of potentially unsafe types. It adds the content type for files that have executable permissions and no specific application association. These files are potentially unsafe as they will launch in Terminal and their content will be executed as commands. While these files are not automatically launched, if manually opened they could lead to the execution of arbitrary code. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.5.
• CVE-2008-4818, CVE-2008-4819, CVE-2008-4820, CVE-2008-4821, CVE-2008-4822, CVE-2008-4823, CVE-2008-4824: Multiple issues exist in the Adobe Flash Player plug-in, the most serious of which may lead to arbitrary code execution when viewing a maliciously crafted web site. The issues are addressed by updating the Flash Player plug-in to version 9.0.151.0. Further information is available via the Adobe web site.
• CVE-2008-4218: Integer overflow issues exist within the i386_set_ldt and i386_get_ldt system calls, which may allow a local user to execute arbitrary code with system privileges. This update addresses the issues through improved bounds checking. These issues do not affect PowerPC systems.
• CVE-2008-4219: An infinite loop may occur when a program located on an NFS share receives an exception. This may lead to an unexpected system shutdown. This update addresses the issue through improved handling of exceptions.
• CVE-2008-4220: An integer overflow exists in Libsystem’s inet_net_pton API, which may lead to arbitrary code execution or the unexpected termination of the application using the API. This update addresses the issue through improved bounds checking. This API is not normally called with untrusted data, and no exploitable cases of this issue are known. This update is provided to help mitigate potential attacks against any application using this API.
• CVE-2008-4221: A memory corruption issue exists in Libsystem’s strptime API. Parsing a maliciously crafted date string may lead to arbitrary code execution or unexpected application termination. This update addresses the issue through improved memory allocation.
• CVE-2008-1391: Multiple integer overflows exist in Libsystem’s strfmon implementation. An application calling strfmon with large values of certain integer fields in the format string argument may unexpectedly terminate or lead to arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issues through improved bounds checking.
• CVE-2008-4237: The method by which the software on a managed client system installs per-host configuration information does not always correctly identify the system. On a misidentified system, per-host settings are not applied, including the screen saver lock. This update addresses the issue by having Managed Client use the correct system identification. This issue does not affect systems with built-in Ethernet.
• CVE-2008-4222: An infinite loop may occur in the handling of TCP packets in natd. By sending a maliciously crafted TCP packet, a remote attacker may be able to cause a denial of service if Internet Sharing is enabled. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of TCP packets.
• CVE-2008-4223: An authentication bypass issue exists in the Podcast Producer server, which may allow an unauthorized user to access administrative functions in the server. This update addresses the issue through improved handling of access restrictions. Podcast Producer was introduced in Mac OS X Server v10.5.
• CVE-2008-4224: An input validation issue exists in the handling of malformed UDF volumes. Opening a maliciously crafted ISO file may lead to an unexpected system shutdown. This update addresses the issue through improved input validation.

[Source: zdnet]

Apple has released iPhone OS 2.2 with patches for 12 documented security flaws, some very serious.

The vulnerabilities covered by the patch (which also affect iPod Touch) could allow remote code execution, information theft, software crashes and weakened encryption settings.

The skinny on this batch of updates:

• CVE-2008-2321: CoreGraphics contains memory corruption issues in the processing of arguments. Passing untrusted input to CoreGraphics via an application, such as a web browser, may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. Credit to Michal Zalewski of Google for reporting this issue.
• CVE-2008-2327: Multiple uninitialized memory access issues exist in libTIFF’s handling of LZW-encoded TIFF images. Viewing a maliciously crafted TIFF image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.
• CVE-2008-1586: A memory exhaustion issue exists in the handling of TIFF images. Viewing a maliciously crafted TIFF image may lead to an unexpected device reset. Credit to Sergio ’shadown’ Alvarez of n.runs AG for reporting this issue.
• CVE-2008-4227: The encryption level for PPTP VPN connections may revert to a previous lower setting. This update addresses the issue by properly setting the encryption preferences. Credit to Stephen Butler of the University of Illinois of Urbana-Champaign for reporting this issue.
• CVE-2008-4211: A signedness issue in Office Viewer’s handling of columns in Microsoft Excel files may result in an out-of-bounds
  memory access. Viewing a maliciously crafted Microsoft Excel file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code
  execution. Apple discovered this bug internally.
• CVE-2008-4228: iPhone provides the ability to make an emergency call when locked. Currently, an emergency call may be placed to any number. A person with physical access to an iPhone may take advantage of this feature to place arbitrary calls which are charged to the iPhone owner.
• CVE-2008-4229: The Passcode Lock feature is designed to prevent applications from being launched unless the correct passcode is
  entered. A race condition in the handling of device settings may cause the Passcode Lock to be removed when the device is restored
  from backup. This may allow a person with physical access to the device to launch applications without the passcode. Credit to Nolen Scaife for reporting this issue.
• CVE-2008-4230: If an SMS message arrives while the emergency call screen is visible, the entire SMS message is displayed, even if the “Show SMS Preview” preference was set to “OFF”. This update addresses the issue by, in this situation, displaying only a notification that a SMS message has arrived, and not its content.
• CVE-2008-4231: A memory corruption issue exists in the handling of HTML table elements. Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. Credit to Haifei Li of Fortinet’s FortiGuard Global
  Security Research Team for reporting this issue.
• CVE-2008-4232: Safari allows an iframe element to display content outside its boundaries, which may lead to user interface spoofing. Credit to John Resig of Mozilla Corporation for reporting this issue.
• CVE-2008-4233: If an application is launched via Safari while a call approval dialog is shown, the call will be placed. This may allow a maliciously crafted website to initiate a phone call without user interaction. Additionally, under certain circumstances it may be
  possible for a maliciously crafted website to block the user’s ability to cancel dialing for a short period of time. Credit to Collin Mulliner of Fraunhofer SIT for reporting this issue.
• CVE-2008-3644: Disabling autocomplete on a form field may not prevent the data in the field from being stored in the browser page cache. This may lead to the disclosure of sensitive information to a person with physical access to an unlocked device.

It should be mentioned that several known phishing and spamming flaws in iPhone are not yet addressed.

[Source: zdnet]

, Software/Web Development, Web Development, Ryan Naraine

Buried in today’s flurry of feel-good Adobe news is this less flattering nugget: Adobe AIR is vulnerable to several critical vulnerabilities that could expose users to code execution attacks.

The company released AIR 1.5 with fixes for previously discussed flaws in Flash Player (which is embedded into AIR) and a patch for a separate issue that allows the execution of untrusted JavaScript with elevated privileges.

As this bulletin explains, the issues are all remotely exploitable:

• A vulnerability has been identified in Adobe AIR 1.1 and earlier that could allow an attacker who successfully exploits this potential vulnerability to execute untrusted JavaScript with elevated privileges. An Adobe AIR application must load data from an untrusted source to trigger this potential vulnerability. In addition, AIR 1.5 includes a Flash Player update to resolve the critical issues outlined in Flash Player Security Bulletin APSB08-22, as well as issues included in Flash Player Security Bulletins APSB08-20 and APSB08-18. Adobe recommends AIR customers update to Adobe AIR 1.5. These issues are remotely exploitable.

Adobe recommends all users of Adobe AIR 1.1 and earlier versions upgrade to the newest version AIR 1.5 by downloading it from the AIR Download Center, or by using the auto-update mechanism within the product when prompted.

[Source: zdnet]

Researchers at VoIPshield Labs have pinpointed a wide range of denial-of-service vulnerabilities in Microsoft Communicator, the unified communications that features business-grade instant messaging , voice, and video tools.

The flaws, rated “high severity,” could cripple VoIP-powered communications on Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator and Windows Live Messenger.

The skinny:

• Microsoft Communicator Emoticon: By issuing instant messages to a client which contain a very large number of emoticons it is possible to cause the Microsoft Communicator to become nonresponsive for a certain period of time. During this period of time the phone does not respond to incoming invite messages and can even be forced to go into an offline state, eventually requiring the phone to reregister.
• Microsoft Communicator INVITE Flood: Due to the manner in which sessions and authentication are managed it is possible to cause Microsoft Communicator to open a very large number of sessions resulting in the consumption of huge amounts of memory, potentially resulting in a Denial of Service.
• Microsoft Communicator Real-time Transport Control Protocol Report Block: Using a specially crafted RTCP receiver report packet it is possible cause a Denial of Service (DoS) against Microsoft Communicator, Office Communications Server (OCS) and Windows Live Messenger.

The company said Microsoft has acknowledged the issues.

[Source: zdnet]

Apple has release Safari 3.2 to fix at least a dozen security flaws, some very serious.

The update, available for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard), address vulnerabilities that could be exploited to take full control of a compromised machine.

Some of the more serious flaws:

CVE-2008-1767: A heap buffer overflow issue exists in the libxslt library. Viewing a maliciously crafted HTML page may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. Further information on the patch applied is available via
http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/.

CVE-2008-3623: A heap buffer overflow exists in CoreGraphics’ handling of color spaces. Viewing a maliciously crafted image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.

CVE-2008-2327: Multiple uninitialized memory access issues exist in libTIFF’s handling of LZW-encoded TIFF images. Viewing a maliciously crafted TIFF image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.

CVE-2008-2332: A memory corruption issue exits in ImageIO’s handling of TIFF images. Viewing a maliciously crafted TIFF image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.

CVE-2008-3642: A buffer overflow exists in the handling of images with an embedded ICC profile. Opening a maliciously crafted image with an embedded ICC profile may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.

Three of the 12 issues were found and fixed in WebKit, the open-source Web browser engine.

Safari 3.2 should be treated as an “highly critical” update. End users should apply this patch immediately.Blogger: 4 X Security Team - Create Post

[Source: zdnet]

Google has seeded a new version of its Chrome browser to developers with fixes for a pair of security issues that could expose users to data theft.

The issue, rated as a “moderate” risk could allow hackers to use HTML files to steal arbitrary files from a victim’s machine.

Details below:

• r4188 and r4827 Address an issue with downloaded HTML files being able to read other files on your computer and send them to sites on the Internet. We now prevent local files from connecting to the network using XMLHttpRequest() and also prompt you to confirm a download if it is an HTML file.
  • Severity: Moderate. If a user could be enticed to open a downloaded HTML file, this flaw could be exploited to send arbitrary files to an attacker.

The patch, which will eventually be rolled out via Chrome’s automatic update feature, also adds new features around bookmarking and pop-up blocking.

[Source: zdnet]

Mozilla has released a new version of its flagship Firefox browser to fix a total of 11 vulnerabilities that expose users to code execution, information stealing or denial-of-service attacks.

Four of the 11 flaws covered with the new Firefox 3.0.4 are rated “critical” because of the risk of code execution attacks via specially rigged Web pages.

The four critical vulnerabilities are:

• MFSA 2008-55 Crash and remote code execution in nsFrameManager. A vulnerability in part of Mozilla’s DOM constructing code can be exploited by modifying certain properties of a file input element before it has finished initializing. When the blur method of the modified input element is called, uninitialized memory is accessed by the browser, resulting in a crash. This crash may be used by an attacker to run arbitrary code on a victim’s computer.
• MFSA 2008-54 Buffer overflow in http-index-format parser. This is a flaw in the way Mozilla parses the http-index-format MIME type. By sending a specially crafted 200 header line in the HTTP index response, an attacker can cause the browser to crash and run arbitrary code on the victim’s computer.
• MFSA 2008-53 XSS and JavaScript privilege escalation via session restore. The browser’s session restore feature can be used to violate the same-origin policy and run JavaScript in the context of another site. Any otherwise unexploitable crash can be used to force the user into the session restore state. This vulnerability could also be used by an attacker to run arbitrary JavaScript with chrome privileges.
• MFSA 2008-52 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption. Mozilla developers identified and fixed several stability bugs in the browser engine used in Firefox and other Mozilla-based products. Some of these crashes showed evidence of memory corruption under certain circumstances and we presume that with enough effort at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code.

The Firefox update also fixes the following issues:

• MFSA 2008-58 Parsing error in E4X default namespace
• MFSA 2008-57 -moz-binding property bypasses security checks on codebase principals
• MFSA 2008-56 nsXMLHttpRequest::NotifyEventListeners() same-origin violation
• MFSA 2008-51 file: URIs inherit chrome privileges when opened from chrome
• MFSA 2008-47 Information stealing via local shortcut files

[Source: zdnet]

All your accounting data are not belong to us. Hours after a proof of concept example detailing a XSS vulnetability at Google’s account login page was posted at the XSS Project’s clearing house, the company quickly took notice and fixed it.

“Security researcher “Xylitol” is credited with the discovery of this critical bug. In this case, the fact that SSL is being used on the login page, does not necessarily mean that the users’ login information is secured. Malicious people can exploit this Google XSS to propagate malware, spyware, adware and steal authentication credentials.”

In October, Google was criticized for not paying attention to an already reported cross domain frame injection vulnerability, prompting the release of a proof of concept example demonstrating how third-party content can be injected within Google pages. Ignoring the endless debate of the pros and cons of full disclosure, responsible disclosure and partial disclosure for a moment, the fact that a large number of already reported vulnerabilities remain unfixed despite the potential for abuse, clearly indicates a company’s commitment — or the lack of.

XSSed is a great open source resource, whose early warning feature and RSS feeds are an invaluable resource that could help the affected sites into prioritizing the fixing of particular flaw that’s now in the public domain, if only were the affected companies to embrace it as such.

[Source: zdnet]

A remote buffer overflow vulnerability in the Linux Kernel could be exploited by attackers to execute code or cripple affected systems, according to a Gentoo bug report that just became public.

The flaw could allow malicious hackers to launch arbitrary code with kernel-level privileges. This could lead to complete system compromise or, in some cases if an exploit fails, result in denial-of-service attacks.

This from the Gentoo bug report:

• Anders Kaseorg discovered that ndiswrapper did not correctly handle long ESSIDs. If ndiswrapper is in use, a physically near-by attacker could generate specially crafted wireless network traffic and crash the system, leading to a denial of service.

Secunia rates this a “moderately critical” vulnerability:

• The vulnerability is caused due to a boundary error in the ndiswrapper kernel driver when processing wireless network packets. This can be exploited to cause a buffer overflow via an overly long ESSID (Extended Service Set Identifier). Successful exploitation may allow execution of arbitrary code.

The vulnerability (CVE-2008-4395) affects Linux Kernel 2.6.27. As a temporary mitigation, Linux users should disable wireless network card that are not in use.

[Source: zdnet]

Guest editorial by Aviv Raff

If you ask any Opera fanboy, he will tell you that Opera is the most secured browser. Well frankly, it really is a good and secure browser, implementing many restrictions that other browsers simply ignore.

For example, while other browsers allow scripts running from local resources to access local files Opera doesn’t. And by that, it is almost impossible to steal local files, or execute code by exploiting vulnerabilities local resources.

You probably noticed that I used the word almost. It is almost impossible, due to the fact that one, and only one local resource, does allow you to access local files and other browser settings. The local resource is opera:config.

[ SEE: On Opera patch day, a new zero-day flaw ]

One of the many settings this local resource can be used to change is the mail external application. The mail external application will be opened whenever you click on a “mailto:” link, or whenever your browser redirects to a “mailto:” URL. If an attacker can change this setting it means that he can automatically execute arbitrary code on the user’s machine from remote.

This is of course irrelevant, unless you can actually change the settings automatically from remote, and unfortunately for Opera users, there was a way.

Today, Opera released a new version, 9.62, with a fix for a vulnerability in a different local resource - the “History Search” page (opera:historysearch). The problem was that Opera did not sanitize specific parameters correctly, and an arbitrary script could be injected to this page. An attacker could then execute a script that will create an iframe which will open the opera:config local resource. And then, it will call a script within the opera:config page, which will change the settings and execute arbitrary code on the user’s machine as previously explained.

[ SEE: Opera bitten by ‘extremely severe’ browser bug ]

The vulnerability in the “History Search” page was found by Stefano Di Paola, during our discussion on the full-disclosure mailing about an older vulnerability in the “History Page” that was found by Roberto Suggi and was fixed by Opera in version 9.61. I’ve created proof-of-concept codes which demonstrate the vulnerabilities. Both can be found on milw0rm.com.

While both vulnerabilities in the “History Page” are now fixed, the core problem which makes it possible to execute code from remote, still isn’t.

There is still no Same Origin Policy restriction between local resources in Opera. It is still possible for a script to access one local resource (e.g. opera:cache) from another (e.g. opera:config). In my submission to Opera I’ve asked them to fix this issue as well, and I really hope they will do so before other vulnerabilities will be found in more local resources.

Nevertheless, my recommendation for Opera users is still to upgrade to the latest version.

* Aviv Raff manages a security research team for a Fortune 500 company. You can read about his research at his blog or follow his daily activities on Twitter.

[Source: zdnet]

A team of Swiss researchers say there are several ways to recover keystrokes from wired keyboards by simply measuring the electromagnetic radiations emitted when keys are pressed.

In all, the team of researchers from the Security and Cryptography Laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland, found four different ways to fully or partially recover keystrokes from wired keyboards at a distance up to 20 meters, even through walls.

A research paper on the discovery will be published after a peer-review process. Team members Martin Vuagnoux and Sylvain Pasini explain the findings:

To determine if wired keyboards generate compromising emanations, we measured the electromagnetic radiations emitted when keys are pressed. To analyze compromising radiations, we generally use a receiver tuned on a specific frequency. However, this method may not be optimal: the signal does not contain the maximal entropy since a significant amount of information is lost.

Our approach was to acquire the signal directly from the antenna and to work on the whole captured electromagnetic spectrum.

We found 4 different ways (including the Kuhn attack .pdf) to fully or partially recover keystrokes from wired keyboards at a distance up to 20 meters, even through walls. We tested 11 different wired keyboard models bought between 2001 and 2008 (PS/2, USB and laptop). They are all vulnerable to at least one of our 4 attacks.

We conclude that wired computer keyboards sold in the stores generate compromising emanations (mainly because of the cost pressures in the design). Hence they are not safe to transmit sensitive information. No doubt that our attacks can be significantly improved, since we used relatively inexpensive equipments.

The team released two online videos (here and here) demonstrating the research findings.

* Image source: DeclanTM’s Flickr photostream (Creative Commons 2.0)

[Source: zdnet]

The Google Android operating system is vulnerable to a serious security vulnerability that allows malicious hackers to launch drive-by browser attacks, according to alert from a security research outfit.

Technical details of the vulnerability, which occurs because Google Android uses an unpatched open-source software package, is being kept under wraps until a patch is available.

[ SEE: Android security team appeals to hackers ]

Google was notified of this issue on October 20th, 2008.

According to a warning from Independent Security Evaluators (the company that found the first iPhone code execution flaw), this particular security vulnerability “was known and fixed in the relevant software package,” but Google used an older, still vulnerable version.

The Google Android OS powers the T-Mobile G1 by HTC, a device that’s currently in stores in the United States.

[ SEE: Research firm: Google Android SDK has multiple vulnerabilities ]

• A user of an Android phone who uses the web browser to surf the internet may be exploited if they visit a malicious page. Upon visiting the malicious site, the attacker can run any code they wish with the privileges of the web browser application. We have a very reliable exploit for this issue for demonstration purposes.

The researchers, however, acknowledged that the impact of this attack is “somewhat limited” because of the way Google Android is designed.

• A successful attacker will have access to any information the browser may use, such as cookies used for accessing sites, information put into web application form fields, saved passwords, etc. They may also change the way the browser works, tricking the user into entering sensitive information. However, they can not control other, unrelated aspects of the phone, such as dialing the phone directly.

[Source: zdnet]

According to SophosLabs Adobe’s owned seriousmagic.com has been automatically SQL injected by the Asprox botnet, becoming the very latest high profile legitimate web sites injected with links to exploits and malware serving sites :

“The infection, which resides at hxxp://www.seriousmagic.com/help/tuts/tutorials.cfm?p=1, instructs users browsers to silently install a malicious file from a series of domains known to host attack sites. Adobe announced its acquisition of Serious Magic two years ago and whois records indicate the company is the owner of the seriousmagic.com domain.

According to this post from anti-virus provider Sophos, Adobe was notified of the infected page on Friday. The Register visited the link (using a virtual machine, of course) on Thursday and found it was still trying to redirect users to a series of nefarious sites including hxxp://abc.verynx.cn/ w.js and hxxp://1.verynx.cn/w.js. While those links no longer appeared to be active, two other sites used in the attack, hxxp://jjmaobuduo.3322.org/csrss/ w.js and hxxp://www2.s800qn.cn/csrss/ new.htm, were still active at time of writing.”

With the asprox botnet making an appearance at the sites of Redmond magazine, and Sony Playstation in May and June respectively, seriousmagic.com is once again among the several hundred sites injected with the same malicious domains. Let’s take a peek at this malware campaign, and see where it ends.

In short, every tutorial entry is SQL injected with a malicious domain, which means that if there are 60 tutorial entries, the malicious javascript loads 60 times ending up in an endless loop of redirections to other malware and advertising revenue earning domains set up in this campaign. More specifically, the malicious w.js attempts to execute a multitude of already patched client-side exploits, using the following structure and ultimately leading to a copy of Worm.Win32.AutoRun.qtg with a high detection rate (29 AV scanners out of 36 detect it - 80.56%) :

www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ new.htm
www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ flash.htm
www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ i1.htm
www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ f2.htm
www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ i1.html
www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ flash112.htm
www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ ff.htm
www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ xl.htm
www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ mi.htm
www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ real10.htm
www2.s800qn.cn /csrss/ real11.htm
bbexe.com /csrss/ rondll32.exe

Despite Adobe’s delayed response and the fact that the domains are still active, they seem to have solved the issue by redirecting all traffic from the site to the clean adobe.com.

[Source: zdnet]