A Denial of Service (DoS) exploit has been publicly released that can temporarily crash the awhost32 service for Symantec pcAnywhere.
Product
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Version
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Build
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Solution
—|—|—|—
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Symantec pcAnywhere
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12.5.x
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All
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Upgrade to the latest release of pcAnywhere 12.5 SP4 or pcAnywhere Solution 12.6.7. For instructions, see the following article:
http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5442
Or, if your are currently unable to upgrade, apply the TECH182142 hot fix. For instructions, see the following article
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH182142
Symantec pcAnywhere
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12.0.x, 12.1.x
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All
Symantec pcAnywhere Solution shipped with Altiris IT Management Suite 7.x
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12.5.x, 12.6.x
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All
Symantec pcAnywhere Solution shipped with Altiris Client Management Suite 7.x
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12.5.x, 12.6.x
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All
Remote pcAnywhere Solution shipped with Altiris Deployment Solution 7.1
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12.5.x, 12.6.x
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All
Symantec pcAnywhere
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10.x , 11.x
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All
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No longer supported: See Note below
Note: Any user running a version of pcAnywhere earlier than 12.x is strongly advised to upgrade to the latest release, pcAnywhere 12.5 SP4 or pcAnywhere Solution 12.6.7
Upgrade instructions and build number identification are included in DOC5442,http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC5442
Medium
CVSS2 Base Score: 4.96
Impact 2.86, Exploitability 9.99
CVSS2 Vector: (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P)
Exploits Publicly Available: Yes
Details
Symantec is aware of the public posting of a DoS exploit impacting Symantec pcAnywhere. An unexpected input to the awhost32 service can destabilize the service causing it to crash. In a normal installation the service automatically restarts. A successful attack would result in a temporary loss of access to the affected system.
Symantec Response
Symantec engineers verified this on the supported versions identified above. A product update is available to address this DoS issue. Symantec engineers continue to review all functionality to further enhance the overall security of Symantec pcAnywhere.
If you are not currently able to move to the latest Symantec release; pcAnywhere 12.5 SP4 or pcAnywhere Solution 12.6.7, at least ensure you are running the most current hot fixes for your pcAnywhere application available from the following location:
For Enterprise, Small & Mid-Sized Business (SMB) - Download the appropriate update from TECH182142http://symantec.com/business/docs/TECH182142.
LiveUpdate Option for Home and Home Office users of Symantec pcAnywhere 12.5.x:
Symantec pcAnywhere 12.5.x users should run a manual LiveUpdate as follows to ensure they have the latest updates available:
Once all updates have been applied, review update and build information found in TECH182142 to ensure you have updated your Symantec pcAnywhere application to the latest available build.
Best Practices
Symantec recommends the following best practices when using remote access applications:
As part of normal best practices, Symantec strongly recommends:
Security Focus, http://www.securityfocus.com, has assigned the following Bugtraq ID
BID 52094 for the awhost32 denial of service
This issue is a candidate for inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes names for security problems. CVE ID CVE-2012-0292 has been assigned to this issue.
4/9/2012 - Symantec released the latest version of pcAnywhere: pcAnywhere 12.5 SP4 and pcAnywhere Solution 12.6.7 which included many performance enhancements, all of the previous released security updates and enhancements to the security model of pcAnywhere. Symantec recommends all pcAnywhere users move to the latest release of their respective product.