CVE-2002-1779 in Norton Personal Firewall
Summary
by MITRE
The "block fragmented IP Packets" option in Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2002 (NPW) does not properly protect against certain attacks on Windows vulnerabilities such as jolt2 (CVE-2000-0305).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/19/2019
The vulnerability described in CVE-2002-1779 represents a critical flaw in Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2002's packet filtering mechanism, specifically targeting the "block fragmented IP packets" feature. This security weakness emerged during a period when network-based attacks were becoming increasingly sophisticated, particularly those exploiting IP fragmentation vulnerabilities that had been previously documented in the security community. The flaw demonstrates how firewall implementations can fail to adequately address known attack vectors, creating potential entry points for malicious actors who understand the underlying network protocols.
The technical implementation of the fragmented IP packet blocking mechanism in Norton Personal Firewall 2002 proved insufficient to prevent exploitation of specific Windows vulnerabilities, most notably the jolt2 vulnerability (CVE-2000-0305). This particular attack vector leveraged IP fragmentation to bypass traditional firewall protections by sending malformed packets that could trigger buffer overflow conditions or other memory corruption issues within the Windows operating system. The firewall's failure to properly handle fragmented packets meant that attackers could potentially inject malicious payloads that would otherwise be blocked by standard fragmentation filtering rules. This represents a fundamental gap in the firewall's defensive architecture where the security boundary was compromised by inadequate protocol handling.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple network traffic filtering, as it essentially rendered the firewall's fragmentation protection feature ineffective against well-known attack patterns. Network administrators relying on Norton Personal Firewall 2002 for protection were left with a false sense of security, as the software failed to provide the expected defense against established attack methodologies. The vulnerability particularly affected systems running Windows operating systems that were already vulnerable to jolt2 attacks, creating a dangerous combination where the firewall's protection mechanism actually became a vector for exploitation rather than a protective barrier. This scenario aligns with CWE-119, which addresses weaknesses in memory handling, and demonstrates how network security controls can be undermined by implementation flaws that fail to account for specific attack patterns.
The implications of this vulnerability extend to the broader security community's understanding of how firewalls should handle IP fragmentation, as it highlighted the complexity of implementing effective protection mechanisms for network protocols. Attackers could exploit this weakness to bypass firewall protections and potentially gain unauthorized access to systems, making it a significant concern for enterprise and individual users alike. The vulnerability's persistence in the security landscape demonstrates how legacy firewall implementations could harbor critical flaws that remained undetected for extended periods, particularly when security controls were not adequately tested against known attack vectors. Organizations using Norton Personal Firewall 2002 were advised to either disable the problematic fragmentation blocking feature or upgrade to newer versions that properly addressed these protocol handling issues, emphasizing the importance of continuous security assessment and updating of protective measures.
This vulnerability also underscores the relationship between network security controls and the underlying operating system vulnerabilities they are designed to protect against, as documented in various ATT&CK framework categories related to defense evasion and privilege escalation. The flaw represents a classic example of how security controls can be bypassed when they fail to account for the full spectrum of attack vectors that may target the systems they are meant to protect, particularly in environments where multiple layers of security are expected to work in concert. The weakness in Norton Personal Firewall 2002's implementation demonstrates the critical importance of thorough testing and validation of security controls against known attack patterns, especially when dealing with fundamental network protocols that are commonly exploited in security attacks.