A recently detected design error in Sophos Web Appliance version 4.2.1.3 has highlighted a serious issue that compromises the security features of the product. As to what was discovered by Matt Bergin (@thatguylevel), Sophos Web Appliance version 4.2.1.3 is at risk to have been exposed to Privilege Escalation and Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities.
Sophos Web Appliance is a hardware that is designed to secure web gateway from malware and other such sophisticated attacks that slow the users down by leap and bounds. This product not only acts as an advanced protection tool but also empowers its users to have greater levels of control and a conventional overview of the entire web activity on the network.
Sophos Web Appliance version 4.2.1.3 being a great booster for any of its users has Privilege Escalation and Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities that an attacker can exploit to gain unwanted access. Let’s take a quick look at both these vulnerabilities and how it affects the usability of Sophos Web Appliance version 4.2.1.3.
Sophos Web Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
In general Privilege escalation exploits take place when a user gains access to additional functionality or resources which they are normally prohibited to access through their systems. However, in the case of Sophos Web Appliance, what an attacker might be able to do is obtain an MD5 hash of the administrator password which can then be used to discover the plain-text password. The Privilege Escalation Vulnerability here sheds light on the fact that on Sophos Web Appliance with a software upgrade version 4.2.1.3 can allow the attacker to gain administrator or root level privileges further jeopardizing the safety of the network.
Sophos Web Appliance Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
As the name of this vulnerability describes, a remote code execution refers to the access that a attacker has in order to infuse a remotely crafted attack to gain access to a device irrespective of its geographical location. In the case of Sophos Web Appliance, irrespective of the privilege or the access level the attacker has, he/she would be able to execute arbitrary system commands as a non-root webserver user.
The exploits and vulnerabilities has been communicated to the vendor Sophos and as a remedy it has issued fix for it in Sophos Web Appliance version 4.3. Clcik the link to have a look at the release notes.
http://swa.sophos.com/rn/swa/concepts/ReleaseNotes_4.3.html
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