Hacker drops zero-day, opens FireEye fire sale

US security consultants Kristian Hermansen and Ron Perris have dropped a zero day remote file disclosure vulnerability affecting FireEye kit and say they have another three flaws for sale.

The vulnerability disclosure dropped on Exploit-DB Sunday claims the web server runs as root in some FireEye kit, among other security SNAFUs.

In a note Hermansen says he had attempted to report the vulnerabilities over the last 18 months to FireEye without success. "[This is] just one of many handfuls of FireEye / Mandiant zero day," Hermansen says.

[I have] been sitting on this for more than 18 months with no fix from those security experts at FireEye."

The hacker incorrectly claims FireEye lacks a security reporting mechanism when in fact it has a portal discoverable through a basic web search.

Hermansen demonstrated the burnt zero day by publishing the means by which users can trigger the vulnerability and access the /etc/passwd file.

FireEye -- Authenticated (user login required) Command Injection remote root 0day at module ??? in ??? parameter ;) Will sell for $$$

— . (@h3rm4ns3c) September 2, 2015

FireEye said in a statement to Vulture South that it has reached out to Hermansen and urges other researchers to report through the security bug portal.

"This morning, FireEye learned of four potential security issues in our products from Kristian Hermansen’s public disclosure of them being available for purchase," it says

"We appreciate the efforts of security researchers like Kristian Hermansen and Ron Perris to find potential security issues and help us improve our products, but always encourage responsible disclosure."

Hermansen has previously reported holes in Apple kit and last year in the high profile Covered California Affordable Care Act website. ®

Updated to add

"Upon initial review of the limited information available in today’s public disclosure, we have found that the 'file disclosure' issue impacts a legacy version of the FireEye endpoint platform (referred to as 'HX')," a spokesperson for FireEye told El Reg on Tuesday.

"Recent updates have reduced the impact of this issue to customers running legacy versions of the product (HX 2.1.x and DMZ 2.1.x). However, in order to eliminate risk immediately, FireEye strongly recommends upgrading to the current release (version 2.6.x) of the HX product.

"For customers who remain on the legacy version, FireEye is actively working on a fix for the reported issue in the HX 2.1.x series and will update impacted customers through our official Customer Support channels."