During a presentation, two vulnerability researchers from security firm Matasano presented the results of their research on the common software agents included on many enterprise computer systems. The two researchers, David Goldsmith and Thomas Ptacek, found numerous vulnerabilities in the agents designed to handle automatic updating, schedule backup tasks and handle support requests, the researchers said.
In another presentation, two other researchers–SecureWorks flaw finder David Maynor and graduate-student-cum-hacker “johnny cache”–showed off a method of compromising laptop computers via flaws in the wireless drivers. In a movie demonstrating the technique, the duo showed the attack compromising an Apple MacBook, allowing Maynor the ability to create and delete files on the desktop.
“Now that the OS layer is harder to crack, you are seeing a lot more people going higher up the stack, to applications, or lower, to device drivers,” Maynor said. Flaw finders and attackers bent on industrial espionage have started focusing on discovering vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office.
For the past 18 months, researchers have also focused on finding security issues in the antivirus clients that ironically are supposed to protect PCs from attacks. And, researcher HD Moore used data-fuzzing tools to find numerous flaws in the most common browsers used by Web surfers.
Many of the vulnerabilities are easy to find and should have been caught by developers, if the companies had performed a basic security audit, said Matasano’s Ptacek. While Apple has frequently been criticized by security researchers over the difficulty many flaw finders have found in reporting vulnerabilities to the company, the Mac maker responded quickly to the report filed by Maynor and “johnny cache,” the duo said.
Using the information and a database of driver flaws found by a homegrown data-fuzzing tool, Maynor and “johnny cache” could compromise not just a MacBook but also Linux and Windows XP laptops, the duo claimed. “While we attacked an Apple, the flaws are not in the Mac OS X operating system but in the hardware device drivers,” Maynor told SecurityFocus.
The fuzzing techniques used by the pair of researchers discovered mostly flaws that could be used to cause a denial-of-service.
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11404