Title: Cisco Security Agent Buffer Overflow Protection Bypass Vulnerability
Severity: HIGH
Description:
Cisco Security Agent is a commercial application designed to help protect against network-based security threats. It can help mitigate various network threats, such as known, and unknown buffer overflow exploits.
It is reported that Cisco Security Agent is susceptible to a buffer overflow protection bypass vulnerability.
Cisco Security Agent can be configured to attempt to intercept buffer overflow attacks via the network. This protection mechanism can be bypassed if certain conditions are met.
In an attack scenario, an attacker sends malicious data sufficient to exploit a latent vulnerability in an application located on a targeted computer. If a user is logged into the machine that is being targeted, and it is protected by Cisco Security Agent, and the agent is not configured in a "Hidden GUI" mode, a dialog box will be displayed. This dialog box asks the user if they should allow the network connection, or if it should be terminated. This dialog box has a five minute timer that will automatically choose to terminate the connection if no response is given.
If during the time that the dialog box is being displayed, further attacks are performed, Cisco Security Agent will fail to intercept them. These attacks will bypass the security protections offered by the affected product, and also potentially successfully exploit the latent vulnerabilities that they are targeting.
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to bypass the buffer overflow protections offered by Cisco Security Agent. This aids attackers in exploiting latent vulnerabilities in services protected by the affected package.
Versions prior to 4.0.3.728 are reported susceptible to this vulnerability.
Affected Products:
- Cisco Security Agent 3.x
- Cisco Security Agent 4.0.0
- Cisco Security Agent 4.0.1
- Cisco Security Agent 4.0.2
- Cisco Security Agent 4.0.3
- Okena StormWatch 0.0.03.x
References:
- Cisco: Cisco Security Advisory: Crafted Timed Attack Evades Cisco Security Agent Protec
- Cisco: Cisco Security Agent Home Page
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