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Technical Notes

Security Updates and Reflection
Technical Note 1708
Last Reviewed 05-Nov-2009
Applies To
Reflection for HP version 13.0 or higher
Reflection for UNIX and OpenVMS version 13.0 or higher
Reflection for ReGIS Graphics version 13.0 or higher
Reflection for IBM version 13.0 or higher
Reflection X version 13.0 or higher
Reflection for Secure IT Windows Client version 6.x
Summary

This technical note discusses security issues related to Reflection security features. If you use these features, you should consult this technical note on a regular basis for any updated information regarding these features.

IMPORTANT: The security for all of the Reflection products using the Reflection security features depends upon the security of the operating system, host, and network environment. Attachmate strongly recommends that you evaluate and implement all relevant security service packs, updates, and patches recommended by your operating system, host, and network manufacturers.

Reflection and Security

This section provides information about Reflection products and security.

The following table lists security information regarding other Reflection products.

Product Name
Security Technical Note
All Reflection Products
1700
Reflection for the Web
1704
Reflection for Secure IT 7.0 or Higher
Reflection for Secure IT Windows Server 6.x
Reflection for Secure IT UNIX Server 6.x
Reflection for Secure IT UNIX Client 6.x

2288

Reporting a Potential Security Vulnerability to Attachmate

If you are aware of a potential security vulnerability in Attachmate's Reflection products that is not listed on this document, see Technical Note 1890 for details about reporting the issue to the Attachmate Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).

Current Version

For information about the current version of Attachmate products, see the Product Support Lifecycle at http://support.attachmate.com/programs/lifecycle/.

Product Updates

To determine if any updates are available for the current version of your Reflection product, see Technical Note 1619, Reflection Patch Topics.

FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards ) Validation and Reflection

Reflection products version 13.0.4–14.x use the Attachmate Crypto Module, which has received FIPS 140-2 validation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). To view the certificate and security policy, see the NIST website at: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2007.htm#766.

The SSL/TLS, SSH, and Kerberos Client security features of Reflection version 12.0.3 have received FIPS 140-2 validation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). To view the certificate and security policy, see the Computer Security Division: Computer Security Resource Center on the NIST website at http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2005.htm.

For information about receiving the FIPS-validated product or update, contact Attachmate Technical Support. For contact information, see http://support.attachmate.com/contact/.

Department of Defense (DoD) Public Key Enabled (PKE) Certification

The following Reflection applications are certified as DOD PKI Interoperable:

Reflection for Secure IT Windows Client version 6.1 SP2, SP3, and SP4
Reflection for HP version 14.0 SP2, SP3, and SP4
Reflection for UNIX and OpenVMS version 14.0 SP2, SP3, and SP4
Reflection for ReGIS Graphics version 14.0 SP2, SP3, and SP4
Reflection for IBM version 14.0 SP4
Reflection X version 14.0 SP3 and SP4
Reflection FTP Client version 14.0 SP3 and SP4

To view the certificates, see the Joint Interoperability Test Command's (JITC) Department of Defense (DoD) Public Key Enabled (PKE) Application Status Web page at http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/pki/pke_lab/app_testing/application_status.html.

Security Alerts and Advisories

The following security alerts and advisories may affect your Reflection installation, or the security of your operating system or network environment. We recommend that you review these alerts and advisories.

Note: This information is non-inclusive—it does not attempt to address all security issues that may affect your system.

Alert
Drawing Object Vulnerability CVE-2007-1747
Date Posted
October 2009
Summary
Reflection products with VBA features (Reflection 2008, Reflection 2007, and Reflection 14.x and earlier) include redistributable Microsoft VBA 6.4 files. There are reported vulnerabilities specific to how Microsoft Office uses these files. To resolve these vulnerabilities, Microsoft recommends applying an update to Microsoft Office.
Product Status
Attachmate Reflection products do not have this vulnerability.
Additional Information
For details, see Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-025 at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms07-025.mspx.

Alert
US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA09-209A
Date Posted
28-July-2009
Summary
Vulnerabilities present in the Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL) can cause vulnerabilities in the resulting ActiveX controls and COM components, as described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-035 and Microsoft Security Advisory 973882. Any ActiveX control or COM component that was created with a vulnerable version of the ATL may be vulnerable.
Product Status
Reflection products listed in the Applies To section of this technical note contain ActiveX controls that are subject to this vulnerability. Beginning in version 14.0 Service Pack 7, the Reflection products now contain the non-vulnerable ATL.
Be sure to apply all Microsoft ATL critical patches to your systems as described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-035,
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-035.mspx.
Additional Information
For details, see the US-CERT web site at http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-209A.html.

Alert
Vulnerability Advisory CPNI-957037
Date Posted
October 2008
Summary
A design flaw in the SSH protocol use of block ciphers in cipher block chaining mode could allow an attacker to recover up to four bytes of plaintext. Although the severity of the attack is considered high, the likelihood of a successful attack is considered low and results in terminating the user’s SSH connection.
Product Status
For more information about how this vulnerability affects Attachmate products, see Technical Note 2398.
Additional Information
For details, see the Combined Security Incident Response Team - United Kingdom web site at http://www.cpni.gov.uk/Products/3716.aspx.

Alert
Vulnerability Summary CVE-2007-4752
Date Posted
September 2007
Summary
SSH in OpenSSH before 4.7 does not properly handle when an untrusted cookie cannot be created and uses a trusted X11 cookie instead, which allows attackers to violate intended policy and gain privileges by causing an X client to be treated as trusted.
Product Status
Attachmate SSH clients (including Reflection for Secure IT and Reflection X) do not have this OpenSSH vulnerability. Note: Reflection for Secure IT UNIX Clients versions 6.x and 7.0 support trusted X11 forwarding, but do not have the vulnerability.
Additional Information
For details, see the National Vulnerability Database web site at http://nvd.nist.gov/nvd.cfm?cvename=CVE-2007-4752.

Alert
US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU #419344
Date Posted
April 2007
Summary
An authenticated user may be able to execute arbitrary code on a host running kadmind. Successful exploitation can compromise the Kerberos key database and host security on the host running these programs. (kadmind and the KDC typically run as root.) Unsuccessful exploitation attempts will likely result in the affected program crashing. Third-party applications calling either the RPC library or the GSS-API library provided with MIT krb5 may be vulnerable.
Product Status
Attachmate products (including NetIQ products) are not vulnerable.
Additional Information
For details, see the CERT web site at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/419344.

Alert
US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU #704024
Date Posted
April 2007
Summary
A buffer overflow exists in the krb5_klog_syslog() function used by kadmind and the KDC. An authenticated user may be able to execute arbitrary code on a host running kadmind. An authenticated user may be able to execute arbitrary code on KDC host. Also, a user controlling a Kerberos realm sharing a key with the target realm may be able to execute arbitrary code on a KDC host. Successful exploitation can compromise the Kerberos key database and host security on the host running these programs. (kadmind and the KDC typically run as root.) Unsuccessful exploitation attempts will likely result in the affected program crashing. Third-party applications calling krb5_klog_syslog() may also be vulnerable.
Product Status
Attachmate products (including NetIQ products) are not vulnerable.
Additional Information
For details, see the CERT web site at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/704024.

Alert
US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU #220816
Date Posted
April 2007
Summary
A remotely-exploitable root vulnerability is present in an application which ships in the krb5 sources.
Product Status
Attachmate products (including NetIQ products) are not vulnerable.
Additional Information
For details, see the CERT web site at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/220816.

Alert
US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU #831452: Kerberos administration daemon may free uninitialized pointers
Date Posted
April 2007
Summary
An unauthenticated user may cause execution of arbitrary code in the Kerberos administration daemon, "kadmind", by causing it to free uninitialized pointers which should have been initialized by the GSS-API library. Compromise of the Kerberos key database may result. Third-party server applications written using the GSS-API library provided with MIT krb5 may also be vulnerable. Affected releases are krb5-1.5 through krb5-1.5.1.
Product Status
Attachmate products (including NetIQ products) are not vulnerable.
Additional Information
For details, see the CERT web site at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/831452.

Alert
US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU #845620: RSA Public Exponent 3
Date Posted
September 2006
Summary
Multiple RSA implementations fail to properly handle signatures. This applies to Secure Shell and SSL/TLS encrypted connections.
Product Status
For more information about how this vulnerability affects Reflection products, see Technical Note 2137.
Additional
For details, see the CERT web site at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/845620.

Alert
US-CERT Vulnerability Notes VU#401660 and VU#580124
Date Posted
August 2006
Summary
MIT Kerberos 5 contains local privilege escalation vulnerabilities on Linux systems and in the ftpd and ksu application.
Product Status
No versions of the Reflection Kerberos Client are subject to these privilege escalation vulnerabilities. The Reflection Kerberos Client is not based on the MIT code base and runs only on Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Additional
For details, see the CERT web site at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/401660 and http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/580124.

Alert
US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#623332
Date Posted
July 21, 2005
Summary
MIT Kerberos 5 contains double free vulnerability in "krb5_recvauth()" function.
Product Status
The Reflection Kerberos Client, included in Reflection for Secure IT Windows Client version 6.0, is not subject to the krb5_recvauth() vulnerability (VU#623332). The Kerberos Client is not based on the MIT code base and uses Microsoft Windows memory management routines.
Additional
For details, see the CERT web site at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/623332.

Alert
US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#680620
Date Posted
July 14, 2005
Summary
Buffer overflow vulnerability in versions 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 of the zlib data compression library inflate() routine. 
Product Status
The Reflection Secure Shell client and Reflection X product use zlib version 1.1.4, which is not subject to this vulnerability.
Additional
For details, see the CERT web site at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/680620.

Alert
Multiple iDEFENSE Security Advisories/US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#800829
Date Posted
July 07, 2005
Summary
Multiple vendor telnet client information disclosure vulnerablies.
Product Status
Reflection Telnet, TN3270, TN3270E, TN5250, and Kerberized Telnet clients are not vulnerable to this issue. All of the above mentioned Reflection Telnet products use Microsoft Windows memory management routines, along with compile-time buffer overflow protection, and are not based on the affected BSD or MIT Telnet clients.
Additional
For details about these vulnerabilities, see the iDefense or US-Cert articles listed below.
iDefense: http://www.idefense.com/application/poi/display?id=260&type=vulnerabilities
http://www.idefense.com/application/poi/display?id=220&type=vulnerabilities
http://www.idefense.com/application/poi/display?id=221&type=vulnerabilities

US-CERT: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/800829

Alert
SSH and Address-harvesting Worms: Analysis of Potential for Damage
Summary
In a recent paper (“Inoculating SSH Against Address-Harvesting Worms,” (http://nms.csail.mit.edu/projects/ssh/sshworm.pdf), MIT researchers have raised the possibility that a worm might make its way onto a system running SSH and spread swiftly by mining the contents of the known_hosts file, which is part of many SSH implementations.

While this research presents some interesting findings, it does not point out any new vulnerabilities in SSH or any new methods of attack.

Nevertheless, Attachmate thinks it’s important that our SSH customers understand the implications of this research and the ways in which they can protect their systems. Attachmate SSH products currently support mechanisms that can thwart the kind of automated attack hypothesized by MIT. These mechanisms include certificate authentication support, which obviates the need to store information on SSH hosts locally. The products also support strong, two-factor user authentication to protect against damage caused by password or user key theft.

Product Status
We are committed to continuing to add protections to SSH in order to provide reasonable defenses against attackers. We will introduce more features to the products that offer customers the option of tightening down their SSH implementations so that an address-harvesting worm would be slowed or even discouraged.

Alert
Announcement of Successful Cryptanalytic Attack on SHA-1
Summary
Three Chinese cryptanalysts from Shandong University have recently documented a successful cryptanalytic attack on the SHA-1 algorithm.
Product Status
Reflection products primarily use SHA-1 to create HMACs (Keyed Hashing for Message Authentication), for verification of message integrity. According to Schneier, because hash collisions are not a prominent concern, this use of SHA-1 is not affected by the cryptanalytic attack. (For further details, read the blog posting at http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/02/sha1_broken.html.)

In next several versions of products that use the SHA-1 algorithm, all vendors—including Attachmate, will likely move to phase out the use of SHA-1 hashes for use in digital signatures and add support for SHA-256 and other stronger hashing algorithms.

Additional
Bruce Schneier, the author of "Applied Cryptography," discusses this announcement on his blog, Schneier on Security. For commentary on this topic, see Mr. Schneier's blog at http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/02/cryptanalysis_o.html.

Alert
US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA04-247A
Summary
Vulnerabilities in MIT Kerberos 5.
Product Status
The vulnerabilities described in Security Alert TA04-247A (VU#866472, VU#795632, VU#550464, and VU#350792) are not applicable to the Reflection Kerberos Client. Attachmate's Kerberos implementation uses Windows-based memory management routines and has been inspected to verify that this type of vulnerability is not present.
Additional
For details see http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-247A.html.

Alert
US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#686862
Summary
MIT Kerberos 5 krb5_aname_to_localname() contains several heap overflows.
Product Status
The Reflection Kerberos Client is not subject to the krb5_aname_to_localname() vulnerabilities (VU#686862) because it contains client functionality only and does no mapping of principal name to username.
Additional
For details, see http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/686862.

Alert
US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA04-104A
Summary
Microsoft has released four security bulletins listing vulnerabilities that affect Microsoft Windows and its components.
Product Status
Attachmate's SSH, Kerberos, and SSL/TLS encryption implementations may use one or more of the vulnerable components identified in Microsoft's Security Bulletins MS04-011 and MS04-012. Attachmate recommends that users download and apply the critical update patches available from Microsoft. For details, see http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx and http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-012.mspx.

Note: Patch MS04-011 replaces Microsoft patch MS04-007 described in US-CERT Advisory TA04-041A (see below).
Additional
For details, see http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-104A.html.

Alert
US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA04-078A
Summary
Multiple Vulnerabilities in OpenSSL.
Product Status
Attachmate's SSH, Kerberos, and SSL/TLS encryption implementations use only the OpenSSL crypto library or the Microsoft CryptoAPI, which are not affected by the vulnerabilities above. The Attachmate implementations do not use the OpenSSL client, which is subject to the vulnerabilities.
Additional
For details, see http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-078A.html.

Alert
US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA04-041A
Summary
Multiple Vulnerabilities in Microsoft ASN.1 Library.
Product Status
Attachmate's SSH, Kerberos, and SSL/TLS encryption implementations use the library identified by Microsoft as containing the ASN.1 vulnerabilities. Attachmate recommends that users download and apply the critical update patch available from Microsoft at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-007.mspx
Additional
For details, see http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-041A.html.

Alert
CERT Advisory CA-2003-26
Summary
Multiple Vulnerabilities in SSL/TLS Implementations.
Product Status
Attachmate has inspected our Reflection Secure Shell Client (called OpenSSH Client in versions earlier than Reflection 13.0) and determined that it is not vulnerable to the issues addressed in this alert. The Reflection Secure Shell Client does not read untrusted ASN.1 data, use the OpenSSL ASN.1 code for signature verification, use or generate certificates, or use SSL.

Reflection products that provide SSL/TLS encrypted connections use the Microsoft CryptoAPI provided SSL/TLS Client; therefore, Reflection is not subject to the SSL/TLS implementation vulnerabilities noted in this advisory.

The following products provide SSL/TLS encrypted connections:
Reflection for HP with NS/VT 8.0.6 or higher
Reflection for UNIX and OpenVMS 8.0.6 or higher
Reflection for IBM 8.0.6 or higher
Reflection Suite for X 8.0.6 or higher *
Reflection X 8.0.6 or higher *
Reflection for the Multi-Host Enterprise versions 8.0.6 or higher (product components are listed above)

* The Reflection NFS Client and Reflection X do not use SSL/TLS encrypted connections; however, Reflection X and Reflection Suite for X include Reflection for UNIX and OpenVMS.

Additional
For details, see http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2003-26.html.

Alert
CERT Advisory CA-2002-36
Summary
Vulnerabilities in SSH2 Implementations from Multiple Vendors.
Product Status
Attachmate has tested our Reflection Secure Shell Client (called OpenSSH client in versions earlier than Reflection 13.0) with the provided test suite and found that it is not vulnerable to the SSH2 connection initialization, key exchange, and negotiation phase attacks.
Additional
For details, see http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2002-36.html.

Alert
CERT Advisory CA-2003-24
Summary
Buffer Management Vulnerability in OpenSSH.
Product Status
Attachmate Reflection Secure Shell Client (called OpenSSH Client in versions earlier than Reflection 13.0) uses the buffers noted in this advisory. This vulnerability cannot easily be exploited in the client software, except to deny service; however, Attachmate released a patched version of the client beginning in Reflection 11.0.4.

If you have questions about this issue, please contact Attachmate Technical Support. For contact information about requesting support, see
http://support.attachmate.com/contact/.
Additional
For details, see http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2003-24.html.

Alert
Microsoft VBA Security Update
Summary
Microsoft has identified a critical security issue with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
Product Status
For information about this issue, see Technical Note 1385.

Alert
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-050
Summary
The Reflection SSL/TLS Telnet encryption module uses the Microsoft CryptoAPI library for certificate validation and encryption. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-050 references this library, (see the Technical Details section of the Microsoft Security Bulletin). For details, see Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-050 at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-050.mspx
Product Status
This issue applies when using the SSL/TLS Telnet encryption in the following Reflection products. Note: With Reflection versions 8.0-10.x, the same version of Reflection Security Components must also be installed for SSL/TLS Telnet encryption support.
Reflection for HP with NS/VT 8.0.6 or higher
Reflection for UNIX and OpenVMS 8.0.6 or higher
Reflection for IBM 8.0.6 or higher
Reflection X versions 8.0.6 or higher
Reflection Suite for X versions 8.0.6 or higher
Reflection for the Multi-Host Enterprise 8.0.6 or higher (product components are listed above)

Security and Your Operating System

Security is dependent on a number of factors, one of which is the security of the operating system. This section provides links to security information found on the web sites of common operating systems. This information is non-inclusive—it does not include all operating systems, nor does it include all links to information that may impact the security of your operating system.

Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.asp

Debian Linux: http://www.debian.org/security/

HP (Compaq): http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/home/home.do (Note: This site requires registration.)

Red Hat Linux: http://www.redhat.com/support/alerts/

Sun Microsystems: http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/show.pl?target=security/sec

IBM: http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/support/zseries/

Notice: This technical note is updated from time to time and is provided for informational purposes only. Attachmate makes no representation or warranty that the functions contained in our software products will meet your requirements or that the operation of our software products will be interruption or error free. Attachmate EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES REGARDING OUR SOFTWARE INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Related Technical Notes
1385 Microsoft VBA Security Update and Reflection Products
1619 Reflection Patch Topics
1700 Reflection Security Topics
1704 Security Updates and Reflection for the Web
1890 Reporting a Potential Security Vulnerability to Attachmate
2127 Reflection 14.0 Service Pack 7 (SP7): Fixes, Features, and File Download
2137 Reflection Security Updates for US-CERT Vulnerability #845620: RSA Public Exponent 3
2288 Security Updates and Reflection for Secure IT
2398 Attachmate Security Update for CSIRTUK Vulnerability #CPNI-957: Plaintext Recovery Attack Against SSH
9990 Technical Notes for Reflection for HP, UNIX and OpenVMS
9991 Reflection for IBM Technical Notes
9992 Reflection X Technical Notes

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