CVE-2016-3644 in Endpoint Protection
Summary
by MITRE
The AntiVirus Decomposer engine in Symantec Advanced Threat Protection (ATP); Symantec Data Center Security:Server (SDCS:S) 6.x through 6.6 MP1; Symantec Web Gateway; Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) before 12.1 RU6 MP5; Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) for Mac; Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) for Linux before 12.1 RU6 MP5; Symantec Protection Engine (SPE) before 7.0.5 HF01, 7.5.x before 7.5.3 HF03, 7.5.4 before HF01, and 7.8.0 before HF01; Symantec Protection for SharePoint Servers (SPSS) 6.0.3 through 6.0.5 before 6.0.5 HF 1.5 and 6.0.6 before HF 1.6; Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange (SMSMSE) before 7.0_3966002 HF1.1 and 7.5.x before 7.5_3966008 VHF1.2; Symantec Mail Security for Domino (SMSDOM) before 8.0.9 HF1.1 and 8.1.x before 8.1.3 HF1.2; CSAPI before 10.0.4 HF01; Symantec Message Gateway (SMG) before 10.6.1-4; Symantec Message Gateway for Service Providers (SMG-SP) 10.5 before patch 254 and 10.6 before patch 253; Norton AntiVirus, Norton Security, Norton Internet Security, and Norton 360 before NGC 22.7; Norton Security for Mac before 13.0.2; Norton Power Eraser (NPE) before 5.1; and Norton Bootable Removal Tool (NBRT) before 2016.1 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via modified MIME data in a message.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/06/2025
The vulnerability described in CVE-2016-3644 represents a critical memory corruption flaw within the AntiVirus Decomposer engine of multiple Symantec security products. This issue affects a broad ecosystem of endpoint protection, web gateway, email security, and server security solutions spanning several major product lines including Symantec Advanced Threat Protection, Endpoint Protection, Data Center Security, and various mail security appliances. The vulnerability manifests when the decomposer engine processes modified MIME data within email messages, creating a potential attack surface for remote exploitation.
The technical nature of this flaw involves improper handling of malformed MIME content during the decompression and analysis process. When an attacker crafts specially designed email messages containing modified MIME data structures, the vulnerable decomposer engine fails to properly validate or sanitize these inputs before processing them in memory. This leads to memory corruption conditions that can be exploited to execute arbitrary code on the target system or cause denial of service through application crashes. The vulnerability specifically targets the parsing and decompression logic within Symantec's security products, making it particularly dangerous as it can bypass the very protection mechanisms designed to defend against malicious content.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risk to enterprise environments that rely on Symantec security solutions for email and endpoint protection. Attackers could leverage this flaw to gain unauthorized code execution privileges on systems running vulnerable versions of Symantec products, potentially leading to full system compromise or data exfiltration. The widespread deployment of affected products across different platforms including Windows, Linux, and macOS environments amplifies the potential impact. Organizations using Symantec's mail security appliances, web gateways, and endpoint protection solutions face the highest risk, as these products often serve as primary defense points in network security architectures.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes heap-based buffer overflow conditions, and can be mapped to ATT&CK techniques including T1059 for command and script interpreter execution and T1490 for insecure decompression of network traffic. Organizations should prioritize immediate patching of all affected Symantec products to address this vulnerability, particularly focusing on the specific version ranges mentioned in the CVE description. Additionally, network segmentation and email filtering measures should be implemented to reduce the attack surface, while monitoring for suspicious email traffic patterns can help detect potential exploitation attempts. The remediation process requires careful planning due to the extensive product ecosystem affected, with each product line requiring specific patch versions as outlined in Symantec's security advisories.