Multiple vendor products URI handling command execution

Notification Type: IBM Internet Security Systems Protection Alert
Notification Date: Oct. 15, 2007
Notification Version: 1.3
   
Name:

Multiple vendor products URI handling command execution

Public disclosure/
In the wild date:
July 24, 2007
CVE: CVE-2007-3896, CVE-2007-5020, CVE-2007-3845, CVE-2007-4038, CVE-2007-4039, CVE-2007-4040, CVE-2007-4041, CVE-2007-4042, CVE-2007-4841
Description:

Multiple applications, including Adobe Acrobat Reader, Skype, Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Outlook Express could allow a remote attacker to bypass cross-application restrictions and execute arbitrary commands on the system, caused by improper handling of multiple URIs, including the Mailto, nntp, news, snews, and telnet URI protocol handlers.

 

ISS Coverage

Product Content Version

Network Sensor 7.0
Proventia A
Proventia IPS (G/GX)
Server Sensor 7.0
Proventia Multifunction Appliance
Proventia Mail
Proventia Server (Linux)

27.100
Proventia Server (Windows)
Proventia Desktop
x.x.x.2110
BlackICE PC Protection 3.6 EQQ
Propagation Techniques ISS Protection Available
web/remote exploit Windows_URI_Command_Exec Oct 18, 2007
web/email

Exploit.PDF.UrlExec.A (Proventia Desktop only)
Exploit.PDF-URI.Gen (Proventia Desktop only)
Troj/PDFex-A (Proventia M only)

Oct 26, 2007
Oct 27, 2007
Oct 24, 2007

Detailed Description

Business Impact:

This vulnerability primarily affects endpoints, requires some user interaction (clicking malicious link), but allows an attacker to remotely execute code on the target system.  Multiple research groups have published significant information on the issue, so constructing a working exploit would be fairly trivial.   The growing list of affected applications and lack of patches for the applications (esp. Adobe PDF Viewer) along with the underlying vulnerability (Microsoft) also contribute to the severity of this issue.

CVSS: Base Score: 8
  Access Vector: Remote
Access Complexity: High
Authentication: Not Required
Confidentiality Impact: Complete
Integrity Impact: Complete
Availability Impact: Complete
Impact Bias: Normal 
Adjusted Temporal Score: 6.3
  Exploitability: PoC
Remediation Level: Official Fix
Report Confidence: Confirmed 
Affected Products: For a full list of affected software and versions, see references below.
Technical Description: Multiple applications, including Adobe Acrobat Reader, Skype, Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Outlook Express could allow a remote attacker to bypass cross-application restrictions and execute arbitrary commands on the system, caused by improper handling of multiple URIs, including the Mailto, nntp, news, snews, and telnet URI protocol handlers. By persuading a victim to visit a specially-crafted Web page that calls one of the vulnerable protocol handlers, a remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to inject and execute arbitrary shell commands on the system. Note: XULRunner apps such as Joost and Democracy Player are also affected by this vulnerability.
Remediation:

Some patches are available for this issue. See References for details.

References

XFDB http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/xfdb/35582
Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/943521.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS07-061.mspx
Adobe http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb07-18.html

Revision History

1.0 Initial publication.
1.1 Added CVE-2007-5020.
1.2 Added reference for Adobe bulletin with remediation information.
1.3 Added signature AV coverage information and link to Microsoft bulletin/patch.

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