pcAnywhere Denial of Service

SUMMARY

SARC Security Alert
DTD: 05 March, 2001

Subject:
pcAnywhere Denial of Service, abnormal server connection

Affected:
pcAnywhere v9.2x and v10.0

Problem:
A Denial of Service condition exists in the Symantec pcAnywhere remote control solution that can result in the pcAnywhere server becoming unable to accept remote connections.

Details:
When the socket upon which the pcAnywhere server is listening is fed an abnormal amount of random characters immediately upon connection, any further communications between any pcAnywhere client and the server is prevented. The server indicates continuing to listen for a connection but no longer accepts client connections until the server application is restarted.

Risk Impact:
Low Risk, prevents remote administration of affected host until pcAnywhere server application is restarted.

Solution:
Symantec has developed fixes for pcAnywhere v 9.x and 10.x for this issue. Patches have been posted to the following location for download and are to be included in the pcAnywhere LiveUpdate the week of 5-9 March:

pcA 9.x

pcA 10.x

Credit: Symantec wishes to thank the engineers at the Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC), Lawrence Livermore National Labs for their excellent coordination in helping resolve this issue.

Copyright (c) 2001 by Symantec Corp.
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Disclaimer:
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