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Hackers steal Symantec source code

Symantec is really regretting allowing the Indian government covert or overt access to its source code.

According to SecurityWeek, a team of hackers have accessed source code related to Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Symantec Antivirus 10.2 sitting on the Indian mililtary intelligence servers.

It is not clear how James Patel of the Indian Secret Service got his paws on the source code, and it looks like they may have even handed the code over for testing before being given a lucrative government contract.

The hacker group, operating under the name Dharmaraja, said that within the Indian Spy Programme are the source codes of a dozen software companies which have signed agreements with the Indian TANCS programme and CBI.

The hackers have shown a document dated April 28, 1999, that Symantec describes as defining the application programming interface for the virus Definition Generation Service.

Cris Paden, senior manager of corporate communication for Symantec, told SecurityWeek that while this explains how the software is designed to work and contains function names, there is no actual source code present.

However, a second post entitled 'Norton AV source code file list' includes a list of file names reputedly contained within Norton AntiVirus source code package and Symantec said it was still in the process of analysing the data, but it looks like the source code has been pinched.

Rob Rachwald, Director of Security Strategy at Imperva said that there was not much hackers can learn from the code.

Most of the anti-virus product is based on attack signatures, and malware authors continuously write malware to evade signature detection, he said. Hackers could use the source code to search out and exploit vulnerabilities in the software itself but this would be a little trickier.

Competition in the cut-throat security industry would love to have the Symantec source code, SecurityWeek said. .

http://news.techeye.net/security/hac...ec-source-code

We received an official response from Symantec regarding this stolen code:

Quote:

“Symantec can confirm that a segment of its source code used in two of our older enterprise products has been accessed, one of which has been discontinued. The code involved is four and five years old. This does not affect Symantec’s Norton products for our consumer customers. Symantec’s own network was not breached, but rather that of a third party entity. We are still gathering information on the details and are not in a position to provide specifics on the third party involved. Presently, we have no indication that the code disclosure impacts the functionality or security of Symantec’s solutions. Furthermore, there are no indications that customer information has been impacted or exposed at this time. However, Symantec is working to develop remediation process to ensure long-term protection for our customers’ information. We will communicate that process once the steps have been finalized. Given the early stages of the investigation, we have no further details to disclose at this time but will provide updates as we confirm additional facts