Sophos Details Flaw in Anti-Virus Products

Anti-virus specialist Sophos has reported the details of a vulnerability in its flagship product line that could leave affected computers open to outside attack.

The U.K.-based maker of software used to scan for viruses, spam e-mail and other forms of malicious code said that an independent researcher informed it of the issue, which specifically involves the manner in which multiple versions of Sophos Anti-Virus handle Microsoft Cabinet files, which allow for data compression.

Sophos said that by crafting a specially purposed Cabinet file meant to take advantage of the vulnerability, an attacker could execute arbitrary code on computers running certain versions of its anti-virus package. Authentication is not required to exploit the vulnerability; however, the software maker said the issue does not prevent Sophos' desktop anti-virus scanner from correctly identifying viruses.

The company contends that the risk of infection related to the issue is very small, and company officials said they have not seen any examples of malicious code built to take advantage of the glitch. Sophos has already issued to its customers a software patch meant to fix the issue.

The vulnerability is present in multiple versions of Sophos' Anti-Virus software for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS and , as well as the company's Anti-Virus Small Business Edition, PureMessage and MailMonitor gateway security applications.

While Sophos is typically on the opposite end of the vulnerability-reporting process, as it frequently highlights flaws in the products of major software makers such as Microsoft, a company spokesman said that the company appreciates people working with it to identify any problems, and that it always supports responsible disclosure of security issues.

The only apparent point of contention existing between Sophos and other security researchers following the anti-virus glitch is the time frame when the problem was first reported to the software maker, and how quickly Sophos responded.

For its part, Sophos said it was first informed of the vulnerability in early April, and that it distributed a related patch to customers on April 28, with a second patch issued on May 5. Researchers at Zero Day Initiative, which is sponsored by the TippingPoint division of 3Com, maintain the problem was actually discovered in mid-March. ZDI said further that Sophos was informed of the problem on March 20.

Sophos isn't the only security software vendor battling recent reports of product vulnerabilities. During the last week in April, researchers identified a handful of flaws in anti-virus market leader Symantec's Scan Engine, which could pose the risk of unauthorized access to critical data and malicious attacks.

The problem reportedly allows attacks to be carried out through vulnerabilities in the manner that Scan Engine handles authentication data, server communications and access to its installation directory. Symantec has already issued an update for users of Scan Engine Version 5.1.0.7 or later.

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