Spyware Warrior

[TeMerc]

Published: February 9, 2005, 1:47 PM PST
By Robert Lemos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Symantec has issued a patch for a flaw in its scanning software that could cause a virus to run, rather than catch it.

The vulnerability affects an antivirus library used by the majority of Symantec's antivirus and antispam products, including Norton SystemWorks 2004 and Symantec Mail Security for Exchange, the security provider said on Tuesday.

The software is aimed at a range of systems, from consumer desktops to large corporate mail servers, meaning the flaw could be used to take control of key corporate systems or to install programs to grab people's identity data.

"The impact of this vulnerability is exaggerated by the fact that many e-mail and other traffic routing gateways make use of file-scanning utilities that make use of the vulnerable library," Symantec said in an advisory. "This could allow an attacker to potentially exploit high-profile systems used to filter malicious data, and potentially allow further compromise of targeted internal networks."
Computers are at risk if they run an unpatched version of a Symantec product that scans files to detect malicious code and if they use the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and AIX operating systems, Symantec said.

Security information company Secunia, which rates the seriousness of software vulnerabilities, gave the Symantec flaw its second-highest threat grade, "highly critical."

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