Tuesday, January 17, 2012

So, Hackers Lifted Source Code from Symantec Servers After all

Norton from SymantecOn Tuesday, Symantec spokesman Cris Paden told Reuters that a group of unknown hackers broke into Symantec’s networks in 2006 and stole the source code for four products – Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton Utilities, Norton Goback and pcAnywhere.

It was only eleven days ago that Symantec confirmed that a band of hackers – who identify themselves as the ‘Lords of Dharmaraja’ – had obtained the source code for their products from Indian military servers, who had left the copy there by mistake. At that time, Symantec had stated that their network had not been compromised when the source code was stolen, but apparently that is not the case.

Paden also stated that they’re working to reach out to pcAnywhere users, who now face a “slightly increased security risk” due to the leak, and “provide remediation steps to maintain the protection of their devices and information.”

When hackers released fragments of source code lifted from the Indian military servers, Symantec confirmed that it was for two older enterprise products, Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Symantec Norton Antivirus 10.2, the latter being discontinued. Symantec stated that the release of the source code would not impact Norton’s products for consumers given the age of the products.

On Saturday, a hacker called Yama Tough announced to the world via Twitter that he was planning on releasing the full 1.7GB source code for Norton Antivirus:


However, on Monday the hacker switched gears, stating he wanted to have the first go at zero-day exploits to unleash mayhem on unsuspecting users:

Yama Tough tweeting that he's holding off on releasing Norton source code


The hacker had previously tweeted links to a list of the source code files, but those related pages have since been removed.

Symantec has stepped up to the podium to release the following statement, once again stressing that the source code leaks do not impact their current products:
The code for Norton Utilities that was posted publicly is related to the 2006 version of Norton Utilities only. That version of the product is no longer sold or supported. The current version of Norton Utilities has been completely rebuilt and shares no common code with Norton Utilities 2006. The code that has been posted for the 2006 version poses no security threat to users of the current version of Norton Utilities.

Furthermore, we have no indications that the code disclosure impacts the functionality or security of any of Symantec's other solutions. Lastly, there are no indications that customer information has been impacted or exposed at this time. As always, in general, Symantec recommends that users keep their solutions updated which will help ensure protection against any new possible threats.

Do you still feel comfortable using Symantec products to protect your PC? Share your thoughts below!

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