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Update Protection against Sendmail Header Processing Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

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Check Point Reference: CPAI-2009-293
Date Published:
Severity:
Source: SecurityFocus ID: 6991
Industry Reference(s): CVE-2002-1337
Protection Provided by: Security Gateway
  • R70
Who is Vulnerable?
Sendmail 5.2 to 8.12.7
Vulnerability Description
A buffer overflow vulnerability exists in Sendmail. Sendmail is a general purpose internetwork email routing facility that supports many kinds of mail-transfer and -delivery methods, including the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). A remote attacker may exploit this vulnerability to gain control of a vulnerable sendmail server.
Vulnerability Details
The vulnerability is due to an error in the Sendmail SMTP header parsing component. An attacker may trigger this issue by sending a specially crafted mail message that contains a formatted address field to a vulnerable server. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability will allow the attacker to take control over the affected Sendmail server.

Protection Overview
This protection will detect and block specially crafted mail messages attempting to exploit this vulnerability.

In order for the protection to be activated, update your Security Gateway product to the latest IPS update. For information on how to update IPS, go to SBP-2006-05, Protection tab and select the version of your choice.

To configure the defense, select your product from the list below and follow the related protection steps.

Security Gateway R70

How Can I Protect My Network?
1. In the IPS tab, click Protections > By Protocol > Application Intelligence > Mail > SMTP.
2. In the right pane, double-click the Sendmail Header Processing Buffer Overflow protection.
3. In the Protection Details window, click on Edit. Choose the protection's Action (Override IPS Policy with: Prevent/Detect), and apply Additional Settings.
4. Install policy on all modules.

How Do I Know if My Network is Under Attack?
SmartView Tracker will log the following entries:

Attack Name: SMTP Protection Violation
Attack Information: Sendmail header processing buffer overflow