CVE-2007-0851 in Scan Engine
Summary
by MITRE
Buffer overflow in the Trend Micro Scan Engine 8.000 and 8.300 before virus pattern file 4.245.00, as used in other products such as Cyber Clean Center (CCC) Cleaner, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a malformed UPX compressed executable.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/13/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-0851 represents a critical buffer overflow flaw within the Trend Micro Scan Engine version 8.000 and 8.300, specifically affecting systems running virus pattern files prior to version 4.245.00. This issue manifests in products including the Cyber Clean Center Cleaner, demonstrating how security vulnerabilities in antivirus software can create significant attack vectors for malicious actors. The flaw occurs during the processing of UPX compressed executable files, which are commonly used by malware authors to obfuscate their payloads and evade detection mechanisms. The vulnerability's remote exploitation capability means that attackers can potentially compromise systems without requiring local access or user interaction.
The technical nature of this buffer overflow stems from inadequate input validation within the Trend Micro Scan Engine's decompression routine for UPX compressed files. When the engine attempts to process these malformed executables, it fails to properly bounds-check the data structures used during decompression, allowing attackers to overwrite adjacent memory locations. This memory corruption can be leveraged to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the scanning process, typically running with elevated system permissions. The vulnerability specifically affects the decompression logic that handles UPX-packed files, where the engine's internal buffers are insufficiently sized to accommodate maliciously crafted compressed data. This flaw aligns with CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and represents a classic example of improper input validation leading to memory corruption vulnerabilities.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple code execution, as it provides attackers with potential persistence mechanisms and privilege escalation opportunities within infected systems. Remote exploitation allows threat actors to deploy malware, establish backdoors, or conduct further reconnaissance without physical access to target networks. Systems utilizing affected Trend Micro products become vulnerable to attacks that could compromise entire network infrastructures, particularly in enterprise environments where centralized antivirus management is common. The vulnerability's presence in multiple products including Cyber Clean Center Cleaner demonstrates how a single flaw in security software can affect broad user bases across different applications. Attackers can craft UPX compressed payloads designed to trigger the buffer overflow during routine antivirus scanning operations, making this vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where automatic scanning is enabled.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2007-0851 primarily focus on immediate remediation through software updates and patches provided by Trend Micro. Organizations should prioritize upgrading to virus pattern files version 4.245.00 or later, which contain fixes for the buffer overflow condition. System administrators should also implement network segmentation and monitoring to detect unusual scanning activities that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's classification under ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for command and script interpreter execution highlights the importance of monitoring for abnormal code execution patterns. Additional defensive measures include implementing application whitelisting policies to restrict execution of unknown or potentially malicious compressed files, and deploying network-based intrusion detection systems that can identify suspicious UPX compression patterns. Security teams should also consider temporarily disabling automatic scanning of unknown file types until proper patches are deployed, though this approach reduces overall security coverage. The incident underscores the critical importance of timely patch management in security software ecosystems and demonstrates how vulnerabilities in antivirus engines can create attack vectors that bypass traditional network security controls.