WEEKEND VULNERABILITY AND PATCH REPORT

November 18, 2012

The following software vulnerabilities and updates were announced last week. Citadel Information Group strongly recommends that readers update their computers and take other action as indicated.  This is from an e-mail received from Stan Stahl, Ph.D. [www.citadel-information.com]

Important Security Updates

Foxit Reader: Foxit Software has released version 5.4.4.1023 as an update to its Reader. Download the latest version from Foxit's website.

Microsoft Patch Tuesday: Microsoft's Patch Tuesday release addresses 19 updates to fix a variety of security issues within Windows, Internet Explorer, Office and other Microsoft products. Many of the patched vulnerabilities are rated extremely or highly critical.

PDF Creator: PDFForge has released version 1.5.1 as an update to it's PDFCreator. Download the latest version from www.pdfforge.org.

Skype: Skype has released version 6.0.0.126 as an update to it's Skype application. Download the latest version from www.skype.com.

Current Software Versions

Adobe Flash 11.5.502.110 [Windows 7: IE9, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera]

Adobe Flash 11.3.376.12 [Windows 8: IE]

Adobe Flash 11.5.502.110 [Macintosh OS X: Firefox, Opera, Safari]

Adobe Reader 11.0 [Warning; see below]

Apple QuickTime 7.7.3 (1680.64)

Apple Safari 5.1.7  [Windows, See warning below]

Apple Safari 6.0.2 [Mac OS X]

Firefox 16.0.2 [Windows]

Google Chrome 23.0.1271.64

Internet Explorer 9.0.8112.16421

Java SE 7 Update 09 [Citadel recommends removing or disabling Java from your browser. Java is a major source of cyber criminal exploits. It is not needed for most internet browsing. If you have particular web sites that requires Java, Citadel recommends using a two-browser approach to minimize risk. If you normally browse the Web with Firefox, for example, disable the Java plugin in Firefox and use an alternative browser - such as Chrome, IE9, Safari, etc - with Java enabled to browse only the sites that requires it.]

For Your IT Department

IBM Java: Secunia reports at least 4 highly critical vulnerabilities in IBM's Java. Update to version 7 SR3, 6.0.1 SR4, 6 SR12, 5 SR15, or 1.4.2 SR13-FP14.

VMware ESX Server: VMWare has released a partial fix to address at least 10 moderately critical vulnerabilities reported in versions 4.0 and 4.1. Apply patches if available.

Important Unpatched Vulnerabilities

Adobe Reader / Acrobat Multiple Vulnerabilities: Secunia reports highly critical vulnerabilities in Reader X and Acrobat X versions 10.1.4 and prior for Windows and Macintosh; Reader and Acrobat versions 9.5.2 and prior for Windows and Macintosh; and Reader for Linux versions 9.4.7 and prior. Secunia reports several additional highly critical vulnerabilities in versions 9 and X of Reader and Acrobat. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, August 19, 2012.

Android Browser: Secunia reports a less critical vulnerability in the Android browser that can be exploited to trick a user into believing he is connected to a trusted site by including the trusted site in an iframe. The vulnerability is confirmed in Browser version 2.3.3 included in Android version 2.3.3 and Browser version 3.2 included in Android version 3.2. Other versions may also be affected. Users are cautioned to not rely on displayed certificate information. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, December 25, 2011.

AOL downloadUpdater2 Firefox Plugin: Secunia reports a highly critical vulnerability in version 1.3.0.0. Other versions may also be affected. No solution is currently available. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, August 12, 2012.

Apple Safari for Windows: Secunia reports a moderately critical vulnerability in Apple's Safari version 5.1.2 (7534.52.7) on Windows using the RealPlayer and Adobe Flash plug-ins. Other versions may also be affected. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, March 11, 2012.

Apple Safari for Windows: Secunia reports a non-critical unpatched vulnerability in Safari 5.1.2. Other versions may also be affected. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, December 25, 2011.

CA ARCserve Backup: Secunia reports a less critical vulnerability in CA's ARCserver Backup in versions 12.0, 12.5, 15, and 16. CA provides a partial fix solution and advises updating to a fixed version. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, March 25, 2012.  

HTC Mobile Devices: The security vulnerability in the default Twitter application (Peep) in HTC products remain unpatched. Readers should refrain from using the default Twitter application (Peep). We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, February 11, 2011.

HTC Touch2: The highly critical 0-day vulnerability in the HTC Touch2 VideoPlayer remains unpatched. Users are advised to not open files from untrusted sources. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, December 18, 2011.

McAfee SaaS: The highly critical vulnerability in McAfee SaaS Endpoint Protection  remains unpatched. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, January 22, 2012.  

Microsoft Windows XP: A less-critical security vulnerability has been found in Windows XP which can be exploited by malicious, local users to disclose potentially sensitive information or cause a DoS (Denial of Service). No patch is available at this time. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, August 7, 2011.

Microsoft Word: A highly critical vulnerability has been found in Microsoft Word XP and 2002. No patch is available at this time. Readers should refrain from opening untrusted files in these earlier versions of Word. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, June 19, 2011.

Microsoft Reader: The highly critical vulnerability in Microsoft Reader, versions 2.x, remains unpatched.  Readers should refrain from opening untrusted files in Reader. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, April 15, 2011.

PDF-Pro: Several highly critical vulnerabilities in PDF-Pro, a popular alternative to Adobe Acrobat, remain unpatched. Readers should refrain from opening untrusted files in PDF-Pro. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, March 4, 2011.

Quick View Plus CorelDRAW: A highly critical vulnerability has been found in Quick View Plus which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system. Users should not view untrusted CDR files in Quick View Plus. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, July 31, 2011.

Samsung Galaxy S III: Secunia reports two highly critical vulnerabilities in the Galaxy S3 device. We first alerted readers to this vulnerability in Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, October 14, 2012.

Symantec pcAnywhere:As we reported in our Cyber Security News of the Week, January 29, 2012, Symantec has confirmed that the hacker group Anonymous stole source code from the 2006 versions of several Norton security products and the pcAnywhere remote access tool. Symantec has advised users to disable pcAnywhere because of the theft of the pcAnywhere source code.

ACD Systems: Citadel recommends users remove all ACD Systems programs from their computers. ACD Systems has failed to patch significant critical vulnerabilities in their programs dating back more than a year. Consequently Citadel recommends users remove all ACD Systems programs from their computers until the company fixes these vulnerabilities and pays proper attention to the implications of their security vulnerabilities in opening doors to cyber criminals . The community cannot tolerate a head-in-the-sand attitude, whether by developers or the people who purchase and use their programs. The consequences of willful ignorance are too grave.

• ACD Systems Canvas: Secunia reports at least 13 highly critical unpatched vulnerabilities in ACD Systems Canvas version 14. See Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, August 5, 2012.
• ACDSee 14.x: Secunia reports a highly critical unpatched vulnerability in ACDSee. See Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, February 19, 2012.
• ACDSee Photo: Several highly critical unpatched vulnerabilities have been identified in various ACDSee photo products. Vulnerabilities have been identified in FotoSlate, Photo Editor 2008, and Picture Frame Manager. See Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, June 12, 2011. See also Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, September 18, 2011 where we alerted readers to a second vulnerability in FotoSlate.
• ACD Systems Canvas CorelDRAW: A highly critical unpatched vulnerability has been found in ACD Systems Canvas which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system.. See Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, July 31, 2011.

If you are responsible for the security of your computer, our weekly report is for you. We strongly urge you to take action to keep your workstation patched and updated.

If someone else is responsible for the security of your computer, forward our Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report to them and follow up to make sure your computer has been patched and updated.

Vulnerability management is a key element of cyber security management. Cyber criminals take over user computers by writing computer programs that "exploit" vulnerabilities in operating systems (Windows, Apple OS, etc) and application programs (Adobe Acrobat, Office, Flash, Java, etc). When software companies find a vulnerability, they usually issue an update patch to fix the code running in their customer's computers.

Citadel publishes our Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report to alert readers to some of the week's important updates and vulnerabilities. Our focus is on software typically found in the small or home office (SOHO) or that users are likely to have on their home computer. The report is not intended to be a thorough listing of updates and vulnerabilities.