Bugtraq: Privilege Escalation through Binary Planting in Panda Internet Security

[by_argos () hotmail com]

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Privilege Escalation through Binary Planting in Panda Internet Security
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Software: Panda Internet Security 2012 & 2013
Vendor: http://www.pandasecurity.com/
Vuln Type: Binary Planting Attack
Remote: No
Local: Yes
Discovered by: QSecure and Demetris Papapetrou
Website: http://www.qsecure.com.cy
Discovered: 09/09/2012
Reported: 19/11/2012
Disclosed: 04/12/2012
Vendor's Response: Automatically Generated Email
Vulnerability Reference: http://www.qsecure.com.cy/advisories/binary_planting_in_panda.html

VULNERABILITY DESCRIPTION:
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As a result of an incorrect dynamic link library (DLL) loading in Panda Internet Security, an attacker with user level 
access to the machine can elevate 

his/her privileges to SYSTEM.

This can be accomplished by planting a malicious DLL file in a writable folder that is part of the system's %PATH% 
variable. The malicious DLL is loaded when 

the vulnerable Panda service or the system is restarted.

The following DLLs are insecurely loaded by Panda Internet Security 2013:

Insecure DLL    Vulnerable Service
-------------   ------------------
Pavshld.dll     PsCtrls.exe, PsImSvc.exe, PavFnSvr.exe, PskSvc.exe
ImFilter.dll2   PsImSvc.exe
ImFilter.dll3   PsImSvc.exe
ImFilter.dll4   PsImSvc.exe

In addition to the above DLLs, Panda Internet Security 2012 also loads ham.dll insecurely.