Symantec Web Gateway Security Issues

SUMMARY

Symantec’s Web Gateway (SWG) Appliance management console is susceptible to security issues. Successful exploitation could result in unauthorized command execution on or access to the management console, or the appliance itself. There is also potential for unauthorized database manipulation.

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

Product

|

Version

|

Solution

—|—|—

Symantec Web Gateway Appliance

|

5.1.0 and prior

|

Symantec Web Gateway 5.1.1

NOTE: Customers should always ensure they are running the latest data base updates available

ISSUES

CVSS2

Base Score

|

Impact

|

Exploitability

|

CVSS2 Vector

—|—|—|—

Operating System Command Injection - High

8.33

|

10.0

|

6.45

|

AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

OS Command Security Misconfiguration - High

7.3

|

10

|

4.1

|

AV:A/AC:L/Au:M/C:C/I:C/A:C

SQL Injection - High

7.4

|

10

|

4.4

|

AV:A/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

Cross-site Scripting - Medium

6.4

|

4.9

|

10

|

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N

Cross-Site Request Forgery Protection Bypass - Medium

6

|

6.4

|

6.83

|

AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P

Command Execution in Radius Authentication - Medium

5.8

|

6.4

|

6.5

|

AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVE

|

BID

|

Description

—|—|—

CVE-2013-1616

|

BID 61106

|

OS command Injection

CVE-2013-1617

|

BID 61101

|

SQL Injection

CVE-2013-4670

|

BID 61103

|

Cross-Site Scripting

CVE-2013-4671

|

BID 61102

|

Cross-Site Request Forgery Protection Bypass

CVE-2013-4672

|

BID 61104

|

OS Command Security Misconfiguration

CVE-2013-4673

|

BID 61105

|

Command Execution in Radius Authentication

MITIGATION

Details

Symantec was notified of security issues impacting the SWG management console and the underlying appliance OS. These security issues may be leveraged individually or chained in an attempt to facilitate additional unauthorized access. The results of successful exploitation could potentially range from unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data to possibly unauthorized privileged access to the Symantec Web Gateway Appliance.

Unauthenticated arbitrary commands can potentially be injected into existing application scripts accessible though the SWG consoles interface. Successful command injection could result in arbitrary command execution with elevated privileges on the web console.

The sudoer file is configured such that a non-privileged but authorized sudo user can run unauthorized commands that could possibly result in elevated access to the appliance.

Some web application pages do not properly validate/sanitize external input allowing cross-site scripting both reflected and stored. Successful targeting of these issues could result in hijacking the SWG user session.

A cross-site request forgery (CSRF) issue that can be leveraged by bypassing existing CSRF protection is present in affected versions of SWG.

Because both cross-site scripting and cross-site request forgery are trust exploitations, they would generally require enticing an unprivileged but authorized network client user to follow a link or visit a web site hosting malicious code that would be downloaded. The potential for exploitation is possible because the SWG application scans the incoming malicious code. Depending on the nature of the link it is possible to execute arbitrary html requests/scripts. This could result in unintended actions being taken in the context of the web console user.

SQL injection issues were identified allowing an authenticated SWG administrator to make unauthorized database queries. Successful targeting could potentially result in arbitrary SQL queries to the backend database resulting in unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and/or possibly unauthorized manipulation of the database.

Enabling Radius authentication leaves the SWG console susceptible to the potential for arbitrary command execution. An unauthorized, malicious user able to access the login prompt on the SWG console could potentially run arbitrary code on the appliance.

In a normal installation, the Symantec Web Gateway management interface should not be externally accessible from the network environment. However, an authorized but unprivileged network user or an external attacker able to successfully leverage network access could attempt to exploit these weaknesses.

Symantec Response

Symantec engineers verified these issues and have released an update to address them. Symantec engineers continue to review related functionality to further enhance the overall security of Symantec Web Gateway. Symantec has released Symantec Web Gateway 5.1.1, currently available to customers through normal support locations to address these issues.

Customers should ensure they are on the latest release of Symantec Web Gateway 5.1.1 and running the latest data base update. To confirm customers are running the latest updates check the “Current Software Version -> Current Version” on theAdministration->Updatespage. Alternatively, customers can click the “Check for Updates” button on theAdministration->Updates page to verify that they are running the latest software version.

Mitigations
Symantec Security Response has released IPS signature 26812 - “Web Attack: Symantec Web Gateway XSS” to help detect and block remote exploit attempts. Signatures are available through normal Symantec security updates.

Best Practices

As part of normal best practices, Symantec strongly recommends:

• Restrict access to administration or management systems to privileged users.
• Disable remote access if not required or restrict it to trusted/authorized systems only.
• Where possible, limit exposure of application and web interfaces to trusted/internal networks only.
• Keep all operating systems and applications updated with the latest vendor patches.
• The Symantec Web Gateway software and any applications that are installed on the Symantec Web Gateway can ONLY be updated with authorized and tested versions distributed by Symantec.
• Follow a multi-layered approach to security. Run both firewall and anti-malware applications, at a minimum, to provide multiple points of detection and protection to both inbound and outbound threats.
• Deploy network and host-based intrusion detection systems to monitor network traffic for signs of anomalous or suspicious activity. This may aid in detection of attacks or malicious activity related to exploitation of latent vulnerabilities

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Symantec thanks Wolfgang Ettlinger (discovery, analysis) and Stefan Viehbock (coordination) from SEC Consult for reporting CVE-2013-1616, 1617, 4670, 4671, 4672 and working with us as we addressed them.

Symantec thanks Offensive Security for reporting CVE-2013-4673 and working with us as we addressed it.

Symantec thanks Glenn “‘devalias’” Grant, http://devalias.net, for also reporting CVE-2013-4670 and working with us as we addressed them.

REFERENCES

BID: Security Focus, http://www.securityfocus.com, has assigned Bugtraq IDs (BIDs) to these issues for inclusion in the Security Focus vulnerability database.

CVE: These issues are candidates for inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardizes names for security problems.

REVISION

9/5/2013 - Added credits unintentionally left off original posting