CVE-2007-4277 in Scan Engine
Summary
by MITRE
The Trend Micro AntiVirus scan engine before 8.550-1001, as used in Trend Micro PC-Cillin Internet Security 2007, and Tmxpflt.sys 8.320.1004 and 8.500.0.1002, has weak permissions (Everyone:Write) for the \\.\Tmfilter device, which allows local users to send arbitrary content to the device via the IOCTL functionality. NOTE: this can be leveraged for privilege escalation by exploiting a buffer overflow in the handler for IOCTL 0xa0284403.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/16/2021
The vulnerability described in CVE-2007-4277 represents a critical security flaw in Trend Micro AntiVirus software that affects multiple versions of the PC-Cillin Internet Security suite and related kernel drivers. This issue stems from improper access control configuration in the Tmxpflt.sys kernel driver component, which creates a dangerous privilege escalation vector through a combination of weak device permissions and a buffer overflow vulnerability. The vulnerability specifically impacts versions of Trend Micro AntiVirus scan engine prior to 8.550-1001 and affects the Tmxpflt.sys driver versions 8.320.1004 and 8.500.0.1002, making it a persistent threat across several product iterations.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves a device named \.\Tmfilter which is configured with extremely permissive access controls granting write permissions to the Everyone group. This configuration violates fundamental security principles and creates an attack surface where any local user can interact with the device through the Windows IOCTL (Input/Output Control) interface. The device driver exposes functionality through IOCTL 0xa0284403 which contains a buffer overflow vulnerability in its processing handler. When local users send malicious data to this device using the IOCTL interface, they can trigger memory corruption that allows for privilege escalation attacks. This design flaw directly maps to CWE-276, which addresses improper file permissions and inadequate access control mechanisms.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it transforms a local user account into a potential system compromise vector. Attackers can leverage the weak permissions to send arbitrary content to the device and subsequently exploit the buffer overflow to execute arbitrary code with kernel-level privileges. This privilege escalation allows malicious actors to bypass standard user restrictions and gain complete system control, potentially leading to data theft, system corruption, or further network infiltration. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it requires no special privileges to exploit initially, making it an attractive target for attackers seeking to establish persistent access to systems running affected Trend Micro products. This scenario aligns with ATT&CK technique T1068, which describes local privilege escalation through kernel exploits, and T1543, which covers boot or logon initialization scripts.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate patching of affected Trend Micro products to version 8.550-1001 or later, which addresses both the weak device permissions and the buffer overflow in the IOCTL handler. System administrators should also implement additional security controls such as monitoring for unauthorized access to the \.\Tmfilter device and implementing least privilege principles for device access. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper kernel driver security implementation and demonstrates how seemingly minor permission configurations can create significant security risks. Organizations should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify other similarly configured devices and ensure that all kernel drivers follow secure coding practices and proper access control mechanisms. The remediation process must include verification that the device permissions have been correctly reset and that the buffer overflow vulnerability has been patched in the driver components.