[tags]Windows,MacOS, security flaws, patches, press coverage[/tags]
There’s been a lot of froth in the press about a vulnerability discovered in a “Hack the Mac” contest conducted recently.  (Example stories here and here.)  I’m not really sure where this mini-hysteria is coming from—there isn’t really anything shocking here.

First of all, people shouldn’t be surprised that there are security flaws in Apple products.  After all, those are complex software artifacts, and the more code and functionality present, the more likely it is the case that there will be flaws present—including serious flaws leading to security problems.  Unless special care is taken in design and construction (not evident in any widely-used system) vulnerabilities are likely to be present.

Given that, the discovery of one serious flaw doesn’t necessarily mean there are hundreds more lurking beneath the surface and that MacOS X is as bad (or worse) than some other systems.  Those bloggers and journalists who have some vulture genomes seem particularly prone to making sweeping announcements after each Apple-based flaw (and each Linux bug) is disclosed or a story about vulnerabilities is published.  Yes, there are some problems, and there are undoubtedly more yet to be found.  That doesn’t mean that those systems are inherently dangerous or even as buggy and difficult to protect as, for example, Windows XP.  Drawing such conclusions based on one or two data points is not appropriate; these same people should likewise conclude that eating at restaurants anywhere in the US is dangerous because someone got food poisoning at a roadside stand in Mexico last year!

To date, there appear to be fewer flaws in Apple products than we have seen in some other software.  Apple MacOS X is built on a sturdy base (BSD Unix) and doesn’t have a huge number of backwards compatibility features, which is often a source of flaws in other vendors’ products.  Apple engineers, too, seem to be a little more careful and savvy about software quality issues than other vendors, as least as evidenced by the relative number of crashes and “blue screen” events in their products.  The result is that MacOS X is pretty good right out of the box.

Of course, this particular flaw is not with MacOS X, but with Java code that is part of the Quicktime package for WWW browsers.  The good news is that it is not really a MacOS problem; the bad news is that it is a serious bug that got widely distributed; and the worse news is that it potentially affects other browsers and operating systems.

I have been troubled by the fact that we (CERIAS, and before that COAST) have been rebuffed on every attempt over the last dozen years to make any contact with security personnel inside Apple.  I haven’t seen evidence that they are really focused on information security in the way that other major companies such as Sun, HP and Microsoft are, although the steady patching of flaws that have not yet been widely reported outside the company does seem to indicate some expertise and activity somewhere inside Apple.  Problems such as this Quicktime flaw don’t give warm fuzzy feelings about that, however.

Apple users should not be complacent.  There are flaws yet to be discovered, and users are often the weakest link.  Malware, including viruses, can get into MacOS X and cause problems, although they are unlikely to ever be of the number and magnitude as bedevil Windows boxes (one recent article noted that vendors are getting around 125 new malware signatures a day—the majority are undoubtedly for Windows platforms).  And, of course, Mac machines (and Linux and….) also host browsers and other software that execute scripts and enable attacks.  Those who use MS Word have yet more concerns. 

The bottom line. No system is immune to attacks.  All users should be cautious and informed.  Apple systems still appear to be safer than their counterparts running Windows XP (the jury is out on Vista so far), and are definitely easier to maintain and use than similarly secured systems running Linux.  You should continue to use the system that is most appropriate for your needs and abilities, and that includes your abilities to understand and configure security features to meet your security needs.  For now, my personal systems continue to be a MacBook Pro (with XP and Vista running under Parallels) and a Sun Solaris machine.  Your own milage should—and probably will—vary.

[tags]Windows, Office, malware, vulnerabilities[/tags]

This appeared in USA Today yesterday: Cyberspies exploit Microsoft Office.  This is yet more support for my earlier post.

So, are you ready to join the movement—stop sending Word documents in email?

Update 4/28: And here is yet another story of how Word files are being used against victims.

[posted with ecto]

[tags]Vista, Windows, security,flaws,Microsoft[/tags]

Update: additions added 4/19 and 4/24, at the end.

Back in 2002, Microsoft performed a “security standdown” that Bill Gates publicly stated cost the company over $100 million.  That extreme measure was taken because of numerous security flaws popping up in Microsoft products, steadily chipping away at MS’s reputation, customer safety, and internal resources.  (I was told by one MS staffer that response to major security flaws often cost close to $1 million each for staff time, product changes, customer response, etc.  I don’t know if that is true, but the reality certainly was/is a substantial number.)

Without a doubt, people inside Microsoft took the issue seriously.  They put all their personnel through a security course, invested heavily in new testing technologies, and even went so far as to convene an advisory board of outside experts (the TCAAB)—including some who have not always been favorably disposed towards MS security efforts.  Security of the Microsoft code base suddenly became a Very Big Deal.

Fast forward 5 years: When Vista was released a few months ago, we saw lots of announcements that it was the most secure version of Windows ever, but that metric was not otherwise qualified; a cynic might comment that such an achievement would not be difficult.  The user population has become habituated to the monthly release of security patches for existing products, with the occasional emergency patch.  Bundling all the patches together undoubtedly helps reduce the overhead in producing them, but also serves to obscure how many different flaws are contained inside each patch set.  The number of flaws maybe hasn’t really decreased all that much from years ago.

Meanwhile, reports from inside MS indicate that there was no comprehensive testing of personnel to see how the security training worked and no follow-on training.  The code base for new products has continued to grow, thus opening new possibilities for flaws and misconfiguration.  The academic advisory board may still exist, but I can’t find a recent mention of it on the Microsoft web pages, and some of the people I know who were on it (myself included) were dismissed over a year ago.  The external research program at MSR that connected with academic institutions doing information security research seems to have largely evaporated—the WWW page for the effort lists John Spencer as contact, and he retired from Microsoft last year.  The upcoming Microsoft Research Faculty Summit has 9 research tracks, and none of them are in security.

Microsoft seems to project the attitude that they have solved the security problem.

If that’s so, why are we still seeing significant security flaws appear that not only affect their old software, but their new software written under the new, extra special security regime, such as Vista and Longhorn?  Examples such as the ANI flaw and the recent DNS flaw are both glaring examples of major problems that shouldn’t have been in the current code: the ANI flaw is very similar to a years-old flaw that was already known inside Microsoft, and the DNS flaw is another buffer overflow!!  There are even reports that there may be dozens (or hundreds) of patches awaiting distribution for Vista.

Undoubtedly, the $100 million spent back in 2002 was worth something—the code quality has definitely improved.  There is greater awareness inside Microsoft about security and privacy issues.  I also know for a fact that there are a lot of bright, talented and very motivated people inside Microsoft who care about these issues.  But questions remain: did Microsoft get its money’s worth?  Did it invest wisely and if so, why are we still seeing so many (and so many silly) security flaws?  Why does it seem that security is no longer a priority?  What does that portend for Vista, Longhorn, and Office 2007?  (And if you read the “standdown” article, one wonders also about Mr. Nash’s posterior. )

I have great respect for many of the things Microsoft has done, and admiration for many of the people who work there.  I simply wish they had some upper management who would realize that security (and privacy) are ongoing process needs, not one-time problems to overcome with a “campaign.”

What do you think?

[posted with ecto]

Update 4/19: The TCAAB does still continue to exist, apparently, but with a greater focus on privacy issues than security.  I do not know who the current members might be.

Update 4/24: I have heard (informally) from someone inside Microsoft in informal response to this post.  He pointed out several issues that I think are valid and deserve airing here;

1. Security training of personnel is on-going.  It still is unclear to me whether they are employing good educational methods, including follow-up testing, to optimize their instruction.
2. The TCABB does indeed continue (and was meeting when I made the original post!).  It has undergone some changes since it was announced, but is largely the same as when it was formed.  What they are doing, and what effect they are having (if any), is unclear.
3. Microsoft’s patch process is much smoother now, and bundled patches are easier to apply than lots of individual ones.  (However, there are still a lot of patches for things that shouldn’t be in the code.)
4. The loss of outreach to academia by MSR does not imply they aren’t still doing research in security issues.

Many of my questions still remain unanswered, including Mr. Nash’s condition….

I was surprised to learn a few weeks ago that Vista added symlink support to Windows.  Whereas I found people rejoicing at the new feature, I anticipate with dread a number of vulnerability announcements in products that worked fine under XP but are now insecure in the presence of symlinks in the file system.  This should continue for some time still, as Windows programmers may take time to become familiar with the security issues that symlinks pose.  For example, in the CreateFile function call, “If FILE_FLAG_REPARSE_POINT is not specified and:

  * If an existing file is opened and it is a symbolic link, the handle returned is a handle to the target.
  * If CREATE_ALWAYS, TRUNCATE_EXISTING, or FILE_FLAG_DELETE_ON_CLOSE are specified, the file affected is the target.”
(reference:  MSDN, Symbolic link effects on File system functions, at:  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-au/library/aa365682.aspx)

So, unless developers update their code to use that flag, their applications may suddenly operate on unintended files.  Granted, the intent of symbolic links is to be transparent to applications, and being aware of symbolic links is not something every application needs.  However, secure Windows applications (such as software installers and administrative tools) will now need to be ever more careful about race conditions that could enable an attacker to unexpectedly create symlinks.  They will also need to be more careful about relinquishing elevated privileges as often as possible. 

In addition, it is easy to imagine security problems due to traps planted for administrators and special users, to trick them into overwriting unintended files.  UNIX administrators will be familiar with these issues, but now Windows administrators may learn painful lessons as well. 

Hopefully, this will be just a temporary problem that will mostly disappear as developers and administrators adjust to this new attack vector.  The questions are how quickly and how many vulnerabilities and incidents will happen in the meantime.  One thing seems certain to me:  MITRE’s CWE will have to add a category for that under “Windows Path Link problems”, ID 63.

[tags]monocultures, compliance, standard configurations, desktops, OMB[/tags]

Another set of news items, and another set of “nyah nyah” emails to me.  This time, the press has been covering a memo out of the OMB directing all Federal agencies to adopt a mandatory baseline configuration for Windows machines.  My correspondents have misinterpreted the import of this announcement to mean that the government is mandating a standard implementation of Windows on all Federal machines.  To the contrary, it is mandating a baseline security configuration for only those machines that are running Windows.  Other systems can still be used (and should be).

What’s the difference? Quite a bit. The OMB memo is about ensuring that a standard, secure baseline is the norm on any machine running Windows.  This is because there are so many possible configuration options that can be set (and set poorly for secure operation), and because there are so many security add-ons, it has not been uncommon for attacks to occur because of weak configurations.  As noted in the memo, the Air Force pioneered some work in decreeing security baseline configurations.  By requiring that certain minimum security configuration settings were in place on every Windows machines, there was a reduction in incidents.

From this, and other studies, including some great work at NIST to articulate useful policies, we get the OMB memo.

This is actually an excellent idea.  Unfortunately, the minimum is perhaps a bit too “minimum.”  For instance, replacing IE 6 under XP with Firefox would probably be a step up in security.  However, to support common applications and uses, the mandated configuration can only go so far without requiring lots of extra (costly) work or simply breaking things.  And if too many things get broken, people will find ways around the secure configuration—after all, they need to get their work done!  (This is often overlooked by novice managers focused on “fixing” security.)

Considering the historical problems with Linux and some other systems, and the complexity of their configuration, minimum configurations for those platforms might not be a bad idea, either.  However, they are not yet used in large enough numbers to prompt such a policy.  Any mechanism or configuration where the complexity is beyond the ken of the average user should have a set, minimum, safe configuration. 

Note my use of the term “minimum” repeatedly.  If the people in charge of enforcing this new policy prevent clueful people from setting stronger configurations, then that is a huge problem.  Furthermore, if there are no provisions for understanding when the minimum configuration might lead to weakness or problems and needs to be changed, that would also be awful.  As with any policy, implementation can be good or be terrible.

Of course, mandating the use of Windows (2000, XP, Vista or otherwise) on all desktops would not be a good idea for anyone other than Microsoft and those who know no other system.  In fact, mandating the use of ANY OS would be a bad idea.  Promoting diversity and heterogeneity is valuable for many reasons, not least of which are:

1. limit the damage possible from attacks targeting a new or unpatched vulnerability
2. limit the damage possible from a planted vulnerability
3. limit the spread of automated attacks (malware)
4. increase likelihood of detection of attacks of all kinds
5. provide incentive in the marketplace for competition and innovation among vendors & solutions
6. enhance capability to quickly switch to another platform in the event a vendor takes a turn harmful to local interests
7. encourages innovation and competition in design and structure of 3rd-party solutions
8. support agility—allow testing and use of new tools and technologies that may be developed for other platforms

These advantages are not offset by savings in training or bulk purchasing, as some people would claim.  They are 2nd order effects and difficult to measure directly, but their absence is noted….usually too late.

But what about interoperability?  That is where standards and market pressure come to bear.  If we have a heterogeneous environment, then the market should help ensure that standards are developed and adhered to so as to support different solutions.  That supports competition, which is good for the consumer and the marketplace.

And security with innovation and choice should really be the minimum configuration we all seek.

[posted with ecto]