Symantec Device Driver Local Elevation of Privilege

SUMMARY

A Gear Software device driver distributed with several Symantec products contains a flaw which, if successfully exploited, could allow a local elevation of privilege.

Risk Impact

Medium

Remote Access (adjacent network)	No
Local Access	Yes
Authentication Required	Yes
Exploit available	No

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

Product	Version	Solution
Norton 360	2.0 and earlier	Run LiveUpdate in Interactive Mode
Norton Ghost	14 and earlier	<http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/drivers.cfm&gt;
Norton Save and Restore	2.0 and earlier
Backup Exec System Recovery	6.x, 7.x and 8.x
Symantec LiveState Recovery	sustaining

ADDITIONAL PRODUCT INFORMATION

Unaffected Products

Product	Version
Symantec Ghost Solution Suite	all
Norton Internet Security	all
Norton AntiVirus	all

ISSUES

Ruben Santamarta notified Symantec that a Gear Software driver (GEARAspiWDM.Sys) distributed with several Symantec products could be used to allow a local attacker to run arbitrary code with SYSTEM rights on the local system.

This issue is a candidate for inclusion in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list (<http://cve.mitre.org>). The CVE initiative has assigned CVE-2008-3636 to this issue.

SecurityFocus, <http://www.securityfocus.com>, has assigned BID 31089 to this issue

MITIGATION

Symantec Response

Symantec engineers confirmed that the issue exists in the drivers distributed with the products listed in the Affected Products table above. Gear Software has provided an updated driver to correct the problem. Norton 360 customers can obtain this update by running LiveUpdate. Customers who use other impacted products can get the update directly from the Gear website. Please refer to Obtaining the Update for additional information.

Symantec is not aware of any customers impacted by this issue, or of any attempts to exploit the issue.

Obtaining the Update

Norton 360 users who regularly launch and run LiveUpdate should automatically receive an updated (non-vulnerable) version of the affected driver. To ensure all available updates have been applied, users can run a manual LiveUpdate as follows:

• Open any installed Norton product
• Click LiveUpdate
• Run LiveUpdate until all available product updates are downloaded and installed

Customers who are using other impacted products should download and apply the latest Gear driver from Gear Software's web site:

• From a browser window, navigate to the Gear Software Driver update page, or click on this link: <http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/drivers.cfm&gt;
• Click the Driver Installer link (for 32 and 64 bit systems)
• At the prompt, click Run to install the update.

Best Practices

Symantec recommends any affected customers update their product to protect against potential attempts to exploit this issue. As part of normal best practices, Symantec recommends the following:

• Run under the principle of least privilege.
• Restrict access to computer systems to trusted users only.
• Keep all operating systems and applications updated with the latest vendor patches.
• Follow a multi-layered approach to security. Run both firewall and antivirus software to provide multiple points of protection from inbound and outbound threats.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Symantec extends thanks to Ruben Santamarta of Wintercore (www.wintercore.com), for reporting the issue CERT (www.cert.org), for coordinating the response to this vulnerability. Gear Software (www.gearsoftware.com), for correcting the problem and providing updated drivers.