McAfee: security service bypassed by spam

A fault in McAfee SaaS Total Protection allows a computer to be transformed into a spam relay.

After the publication of Symantec source code (hacked in 2006), another issue has now affected another large computer security company. McAfee (an Intel affiliate) confirms they have a problem with their hosted antimalware service, McAfee SaaS Total Protection.

According to a McAfee spokesman, at least one client has been victim of an attack which uses a fault in the editor’s product. It is situated in a software client component installed on each client PC which uses the service.

This fault allows attackers to send spam from targeted computers. An infected computer is then transformed into a spam relay although no information from the infected machine is accessible states a McAfee Labs security manager.

David Marcus also indicates that another vulnerability exists at the ActiveX controls level which allows code to be executed. The risk of this being exploited is close to zero though as a corrective patch was released for it in August 2011.

Once tests have been completed, a patch will be automatically applied to clients, with it planned for release during the day.