Software Engineering Institute

Novell exteNd Director is a set of software development tools and APIs for creating enterprise web applications. exteNd Director 4.1 includes an ActiveX control called LocalExec, which is provided by the file LocalExec.ocx. This ActiveX control contains a method called launch(), which can be used to execute arbitrary commands on a vulnerable system.

Note that exteNd Director 4.1 is no longer supported by Novell.

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document (e.g., a web page or an HTML email message or attachment), an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the user.

Apply an update
This issue is addressed in Novell security update 3169416. This document describes how to set the kill bit for the vulnerable control.

Disable the LocalExec ActiveX control in Internet Explorer

The vulnerable ActiveX control can be disabled in Internet Explorer by setting the kill bit for the following CLSID:

{2B1AA38D-2D12-11D5-AAD0-00C04FA03D78}
More information about how to set the kill bit is available in Microsoft Support Document 240797. Alternatively, the following text can be saved as a .REG file and imported to set the kill bit for this control:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{2B1AA38D-2D12-11D5-AAD0-00C04FA03D78}]
"Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000400
Disable ActiveX

Disabling ActiveX controls in the Internet Zone (or any zone used by an attacker) appears to prevent exploitation of this and other ActiveX vulnerabilities. Instructions for disabling ActiveX in the Internet Zone can be found in the "Securing Your Web Browser" document.