Software Engineering Institute

Whale Communications Intelligent Application Gateway is an application that provides SSL VPN functionality. The Whale Client Components, which is provided by the file WhlMgr.dll, contains stack buffer overflow vulnerabilities in the CheckForUpdates() and UpdateComponents() methods. Note that Whale Communications is a subsidiary of Microsoft.

By convincing a user to view a specially crafted HTML document (e.g., a web page or an HTML email message or attachment), an attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user. The attacker could also cause the web browser to crash.

Apply an update

This issue is addressed in Service Pack 1 for both Whale Communications Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG) 3.6 and Microsoft Intelligent Application Gateway 2007.

Disable the Whale Client Components ActiveX control in Internet Explorer

The vulnerable ActiveX control can be disabled in Internet Explorer by setting the kill bit for the following CLSID:

{8D9563A9-8D5F-459B-87F2-BA842255CB9A}
More information about how to set the kill bit is available in Microsoft Support Document 240797. Alternatively, the following text can be saved as a .REG file and imported to set the kill bit for this control:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX Compatibility\{8D9563A9-8D5F-459B-87F2-BA842255CB9A}]
"Compatibility Flags"=dword:00000400
Please note that setting the kill bit will break the Intelligent Application Gateway functionality.

Disable ActiveX

Disabling ActiveX controls in the Internet Zone (or any zone used by an attacker) appears to prevent exploitation of this and other ActiveX vulnerabilities. Instructions for disabling ActiveX in the Internet Zone can be found in the "Securing Your Web Browser" document.