ID: IRCNE2013041806
Date: 2013-04-06
According to “ComputerWorldUK”, security vendor Sophos has released an update for the software used on its Web gateway security appliance in order to address three serious vulnerabilities in the product's Web-based user interface.
The vulnerabilities could allow attackers to gain access to configuration files containing sensitive information like plaintext passwords for other internal network services, execute commands as a highly privileged system user and launch phishing attacks against users of the appliance.
The Sophos Web Protection Appliance provides URL filtering, real-time Web content analysis and Web access policy enforcement. It also has the ability to scan encrypted HTTPS Web traffic by using self-generated Certificate Authority (CA) certificates deployed on all endpoints.
According to security researchers from Austria-based security firm SEC Consult, who found the vulnerabilities, attackers could exploit one of the flaws to steal the private CA key stored on the appliance and use it to launch man-in-the-middle traffic interception attacks against users on the internal network.
The SEC Consult researchers reported the vulnerabilities to Sophos on 21 February.
"The issues reported were resolved with the 3.7.8.2 release of the Sophos Web Appliance software in March 2013," Sophos said in an advisory published on its website this week. "This went to an initial group of customers on March 18, to a larger group on March 25 and will be made available to all remaining customers on April 1."
Appliances should be updated automatically within a few days after the fixed version has been released. However, customers can also initiate a manual update from Configuration > System > Updates page in the product's interface, Sophos said.
The SEC Consult researchers believe that the appliance might have more vulnerabilities.
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