Unquoted Path Vulnerability - Continuation

The release for Intercept X (Hitmanpro) component 3.8.2 was halted due to some issues identified during testing. Root cause of that issue was identified and it will be now released as Hitmanpro 3.8.3 (Intercept X 2.0.23) in early September. Release team didn't provide the exact dates for the start of the general release of 3.8.3

In the meantime, you can install the hotfix for 3.8.3 from https://support.sophos.com/support/s/article/KB-000038477. 

Thanks for the update.

I appreciate that there is a hotfix but this not an attractive option if you have a lot of endpoints that need patching. Also, as stated in the patch, "it is not fully release tested and should be considered as a pre-release version for testing only" so it doesn't really make it suitable for wide-scale deployment. The very fact that you ran into an issue with the previous hotfix just confirms this.

More of a general question but is there any way to force a software update from Sophos Central or do we just have to wait until the rollout gets to us? I did try the 'Update' option on a client but it didn't seem to achieve that - does that just do pattern updates?

Sophos client checks for an update right after reboot (when the Autoupdate service re-starts) and every 60 minutes after that. Virus signature updates happen 3-4 times a day. Component updates happen weeks-months apart and are downloaded and installed by the endpoint client once they are available. Here is an article that talks more about updating https://support.sophos.com/support/s/article/KB-000042881?language=en_US

You can force trigger an update from Central by pressing Update when looking at a specific endpoint or on the machine itself through the interface by pressing "update now".

In your case you would also need to check if you are 

1) using controlled updates (for servers and endpoints - in Global settings) - if yes, then you would need to make sure to press "update test group and then match the rest of the machines with the test group once the update is available)

2) using Update schedule policy (you can find it among other policies) - eg. updating at a specific time of the day and specific day of the week. (eg. even if an update is available it will not be downloaded\installed until a specific day of the week\time that you may indicate in the policy). If the machine is off during that time - it works as a scheduled task and it will need to wait until the next occurrence of the event. 

Hope that helps!

An excellent explanation but it isn't working for me.

I was fairly sure we aren't using controlled updates or an update schedule but I checked them anyway.

I did an 'Update Now' and it shows 'Update succeeded' in 'Recent Events' but I am still on Intercept X 2.0.22 with Hitman Pro 3.8.1

JasP This is likely because you are not in the group of customers that are getting this release today. The release for endpoints will go from Nov 8 to 18 depending on groups of customers and other internal release logic. For servers everything will be completed by Dec 07. This means that your environment will get those updates available in that date range. 

The article that I mentioned above https://support.sophos.com/support/s/article/KB-000042881 talks about it:

"For Sophos Central, we release Endpoint and Server product updates at any time during the year. In addition, due to the dynamic nature of the product, these releases can change at any point and can differ between customers." 

If it's critical for you to get that update asap, please raise a case with support, who can escalate it to GES team and move your account to get the update right away. Otherwise, if you do nothing, then you will be able to see your endpoints having that update by Nov 18. 

I did read the article but the wording is a bit ambiguous, it would be simpler if it just said that updates are rolled out over a period of x weeks (or something similar).

This is much what I expected and is typical for these sorts of updates. It clearly doesn't make sense to build the infrastructure to update everybody on day 1 and then have it sitting idle. TBH I'm quite happy to not be among the first to get updated unless there is a 0 day vulnerability that needs addressing.

In this case, I wanted to try it out, but it certainly isn't critical enough to raise a support case...I've waited this long already ;)

This goes back to my original question, is it possible to force an update, and the short answer is no! That said, your replies have been very informative and I have gained some useful knowledge. Thanks for taking the time to explain everything.

PavSupport how accurate are those dates you quoted (Nov 8 to 18)? We have five sites with Intercept X Advanced and none of the clients at those sites have updated to 2.0.23. We haven't made any changes to Controlled Updates.

Hi,

We are also not seeing the update come through yet. Any updates on when it will be released to endpoints? This is a major issue for us, because we are leaving a high level vulnerability on our laptops by having this unquoted path in existence. It's just ironic that it would be the antivirus program, and a bit frustrating. 

Thanks,
Jack

Hello Jack and JasP,

When checking on the status of this release, it looks like a bug was found where Intercept X isn’t able to run alongside Forcepoint Websense DLP. Our development team is still looking into this issue, so the release was put on hold after the initial groups it was pushed out to. 

If you urgently require the updated Intercept X version, it can still be obtained via the following KBA link.
- Sophos Exploit Prevention cumulative hotfix

The KBA linked above has also been updated with information surrounding this CVE. Currently, it states that this is expected to be fully released as of January 2022.

It's taken me this long to reply because your response left me speechless!

That will be 10 months since you introduced this issue. Whatever arguments about how serious this is, we still have to report it every month to senior management and it makes Sophos look incompetent, especially when it is an issue they created themselves through a schoolboy error in their installation routine. Having reported that a fix had been released, we now have to go back and say "sorry, going to be another two months (at least) but with their current record it could be even longer".

What I'm really struggling to understand is why Sophos didn't just release an incremental update straight away that just fixed the registry issue. Instead, they have insisted on fixing a load of other software issues at the same time before they will release an update and fix the security problem. Why? This has unnecessarily dragged on and on and on.

Our deepest apologies for the delays in getting this fix to General Availability.

We are looking into building out functionality directly from Sophos Central, that will allow you to deploy a hotfix package across your environment which will bridge this gap should you run into a similar situation in the future.

Our deepest apologies for the delays in getting this fix to General Availability.

We are looking into building out functionality directly from Sophos Central, that will allow you to deploy a hotfix package across your environment which will bridge this gap should you run into a similar situation in the future.

Sounds like a good idea.