CVE-2008-6904 in Sophos
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple unspecified vulnerabilities in Sophos SAVScan 4.33.0 for Linux, and possibly other products and versions, allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (segmentation fault) and possibly execute arbitrary code via crafted files that have been packed with (1) armadillo, (2) asprotect, or (3) asprotectSKE.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/13/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-6904 affects Sophos SAVScan 4.33.0 for Linux and potentially other products in the Sophos security suite. This issue represents a critical security flaw that demonstrates the dangers of improper input validation and memory management in antivirus software. The vulnerability specifically manifests when the scanning engine encounters files that have been packed using legitimate software protection tools such as armadillo, asprotect, or asprotectSKE. These packing tools are commonly used by software developers to protect their applications from reverse engineering and unauthorized copying, but they create complex file structures that can overwhelm the parsing capabilities of security software when not properly handled.
The technical flaw stems from inadequate error handling within the SAVScan engine's file parsing routines. When processing packed files, the software fails to properly validate the structure and content of these obfuscated files, leading to buffer overflows, memory corruption, or other memory management issues. The vulnerability can result in segmentation faults that cause the antivirus service to crash and terminate unexpectedly, creating a denial of service condition. However, the more severe aspect of this vulnerability is the potential for arbitrary code execution, which would allow remote attackers to gain control of the affected system. This occurs because the improper handling of packed file structures can lead to memory corruption that enables attackers to manipulate program execution flow and inject malicious code into the running process.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risks to enterprise environments that rely on Sophos antivirus solutions for endpoint protection. The remote exploitation capability means that attackers can potentially compromise systems without requiring local access, making the attack surface much broader than typical local privilege escalation vulnerabilities. The use of legitimate packing tools as attack vectors also makes this vulnerability particularly challenging to detect and prevent, as these tools are commonly used in legitimate software distribution and may not trigger traditional security alerts. Organizations running affected versions of SAVScan 4.33.0 for Linux face potential system compromise, data loss, and disruption of security operations, as the antivirus software itself becomes a potential attack vector rather than a protective mechanism.
Security mitigations for this vulnerability should include immediate patching of affected systems with the latest Sophos updates that address the file parsing flaws in the SAVScan engine. Network administrators should implement additional monitoring to detect unusual scanning behavior or service crashes that might indicate exploitation attempts. The principle of least privilege should be applied to limit the impact if exploitation occurs, and system administrators should consider temporarily disabling automated scanning of suspicious or unknown file types while patches are deployed. Organizations should also implement proper input validation and sanitization procedures for all file processing activities, which aligns with the security principles outlined in the CWE-121 category for buffer overflow vulnerabilities. The ATT&CK framework would classify this vulnerability under T1059 for command and scripting interpreter and potentially T1499 for network denial of service, as the exploitation could lead to both service disruption and system compromise. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar issues in other security software components, as this vulnerability demonstrates how legitimate software protection tools can be weaponized against security solutions.