Symantec Antivirus Hole Described As ‘Definitely Wormable’
May 28, 2006 by Kori Ellis
Filed under Computers
As reported by ComputerWorld Security.com – eEye Digital Security Inc. is reporting on a serious flaw in Symantec Corp.’s enterprise antivirus software. Researchers report the “hole” is one that hackers could use to create “a self-replicating “worm” attack against Symantec users.”
Because Symantec has not yet confirmed the existence of the problem, much less patched it, eEye is offering few details on the vulnerability, which was first disclosed late Wednesday.
“This is definitely a wormable flaw,” said Mike Puterbaugh, eEye’s vice president of marketing. “It does allow you to take remote control of the system.”
Similar to viruses, worms are able to spread from computer to computer, and past attacks such as 2003’s Blaster and Slammer worms were widespread.
Symantec is evaluating eEye’s claims and “if necessary, will provide a prompt response and solution,” a Symantec spokesman said today.
EEye Chief Hacking Officer Marc Maiffret believes that it will take Symantec a “month or two” to patch the problem. “The vulnerability is pretty straightforward for them to identify within their code,” he said.
The flaw affects the enterprise versions of Symantec’s antivirus software. Those of you using the personal versions are not affected.
Researchers find flaw in Symantec antivirus
