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Symantec AntiVirus for Macintosh Privilege Escalation Weakness
Secunia Advisory: SA27488
Release Date: 2007-11-02
Last Update: 2007-11-06
Popularity: 6,177 views

Critical:
Not critical
Impact: Privilege escalation
Where: Local system
Solution Status: Vendor Workaround

Software:Symantec AntiVirus for Macintosh 10.x
Symantec Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh 10.x
Symantec Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh 9.x
Symantec Norton Internet Security for Macintosh 3.x

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CVE reference:CVE-2007-5829


Description:
A weakness has been reported in Symantec AntiVirus for Macintosh and Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh, which can be exploited by malicious, local users to gain escalated privileges.

The weakness is caused due to insecure permissions on the "/Library/Application Support" folder. This can be exploited to execute arbitrary code as the "root" user by e.g. replacing a certain application within the affected folder or tricking the Disk Mount scanner into launching an arbitrary executable by renaming folders.

Successful exploitation requires membership of the "admin" group and that "mount scanning" is enabled and configured to show the progress.

The weakness is reported in Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh 9.x-10.x, Norton Internet Security for Macintosh 3.x, Symantec AntiVirus for Macintosh 10.0 and 10.1. Linux and Windows versions are not affected.

Solution:
The vendor recommends disabling "Show Progress During Mount Scans" and setting the sticky bit for the folder "Library/Application Support" (see the vendor's advisory for details).

Provided and/or discovered by:
William Carrel.

Changelog:
2007-11-05: Added link to the reporter's advisory.
2007-11-06: Added CVE reference.

Original Advisory:
Symantec:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/security/Content/2007.11.02.html

William Carrel:
http://blog.carrel.org/2007/11/security-advisory-norton-antivirus-for.html


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