Symantec Alert Management System HNDLRSVC Arbitrary Command Execution

TSL ID: FSC20100727-01

1. Affected Software

     Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 10.1.8.8000 and possibly prior
     Symantec System Center 10.1.8.8000 and possibly prior

Reference: http://www.symantec.com/business/antivirus-corporate-edition

2. Vulnerability Summary

An arbitrary program execution vulnerability exists in Symantec Alert Management System (AMS) service shipped with multiple Symantec products. The vulnerability could be exploited by remote unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges.

3. Vulnerability Analysis

The Alert Management System (AMS) component of Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition installs an alert handler service, HNDLRSVC, that listens for commands from the AMS server. This service does not perform proper authentication checks before executing such commands. Remote unauthenticated attackers could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted packet via the MSGSYS.EXE service on port 38292/TCP. The Run Program command would allow executing arbitrary programs from a remote SMB share with SYSTEM privileges on the vulnerable system.


4. Vulnerability Detection

TELUS Security Labs has confirmed the vulnerability in:

     Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 10.1.8.8000
     Symantec System Center 10.1.8.8000

5. Workaround

Disable the AMS service, or update to the non-vulnerable version of Symantec Antivirus 11.x series which does not include the vulnerable AMS component.

6. Vendor Response

Patches have been made available by the vendor to eliminate this vulnerability:

http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/securityupdates/detail.jsp?fid=security_advisory&pvid=security_advisory&year=2011&suid=20110126_00

7. Disclosure Timeline

  2009-07-31 Reported to the vendor
  2009-08-03 Vendor response
  2011-01-26 Coordinated public disclosure

8. Credits

Junaid Bohio of Vulnerability Research Team, TELUS Security Labs

9. References

  CVE: CVE-2010-0110

  Vendor: http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/securityupdates/detail.jsp?fid=security_advisory&pvid=security_advisory&year=2011&suid=20110126_00

  http://telussecuritylabs.com/threats/show/FSC20100727-01

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