Vulnerability Note VU#814187

Symantec LiveUpdate stores proxy server passwords in plaintext in registry

Overview

A vulnerability exists in the way Symantec LiveUpdate stores proxy server passwords which could allow local users to have read access to the key.

I. Description

LiveUpdate version 1.5 stores proxy server passwords in clear text in the registry, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Symantec\LiveUpdate\Preferences\Proxy. All users on the machine have read access to this key. The concern is that the proxy server user name and password might be the same as the user name and password for logging onto the domain.

For more information, please see the SARC Security Advisory.

II. Impact

This vulnerability could allow a local attacker to view the proxy server password.

III. Solution

Update to LiveUpdate 1.6 or later.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Symantec	Vulnerable	18-Jul-2001

References

http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/security/

Credit

The CERT/CC thanks Jason Winder for reporting this vulnerability and Symantec for their assistance in researching the issue.

This document was written by Ian A. Finlay.

Other Information

Date Public:	2001-07-20
Date First Published:	2001-07-20
Date Last Updated:	2006-05-09
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):	CVE-2001-0549
NVD-ID(s):	CVE-2001-0549
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	3.78
Document Revision:	33

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