Description: Reed Arvin has discovered a vulnerability in Altiris Deployment Solution, which can be exploited by malicious, local users to gain escalated privileges.
The vulnerability is caused due to the Altiris Client Service for Windows (ACLIENT.EXE) process invoking Notepad.exe with SYSTEM privileges when the user attempts to view a log file via the "View Log File" feature.
Successful exploitation allows executing arbitrary programs on the system with SYSTEM privileges.
The vulnerability has been reported in version 5.6.181 and has also been confirmed in version 6.1.350. Other versions may also be affected.
Solution: The vulnerability has been fixed in Deployment Solution 6.1 SP1 Hotfix D.
Provided and/or discovered by: Reed Arvin
Changelog: 2004-11-24: Updated "Solution" section with vendor workaround.
2005-04-28: Updated "Solution" section. Using the password restriction functionality is not a viable solution as it can be bypassed (see SA15159 for more information).
2005-05-02: Updated "Solution" section.
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