Sourcefire Delivers Same Day Protection for Critical, Out-of-Band Microsoft Vulnerability

COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Open source innovator and SNORT^®creator, Sourcefire, Inc. (Nasdaq:FIRE), a leader in Enterprise Threat Management, announced that the Sourcefire^® Vulnerability Research Team (VRT) delivered rules to protect Sourcefire customers and Snort users from a critical Microsoft vulnerability within 30 minutes of its public disclosure yesterday. As a member of the new Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP), Sourcefire now receives vulnerability information from Microsoft in advance, which allows the company to quickly protect its users from potential threats.

“MAPP’s launch could not have come at a better time. The MAPP allowed us to provide protection for yesterday’s out-of-band vulnerability within minutes of public disclosure.”

As a partner in MAPP, a new program from the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) that provides early notification, the Sourcefire VRT can better anticipate emerging threats and continue its track record of delivering timely protection against new and dynamic attacks.

“Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) has been designed to help security software providers better protect our mutual customers. For example, Sourcefire’s speed in delivering high-quality signature rules at such short notice is proof that this program is helping do that by improving collaboration,” said Mark Miller, Director of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing product management. “The release of MS08-067 was a good indicator that by working together we can help better protect customers from potential threats.”

“Sourcefire works diligently to ensure that our customers and Snort users receive the industry’s best protection, and with the new MAPP disclosures, we can now provide our users with an even faster response to critical threats,” said Matt Watchinski, Senior Director of the Sourcefire Vulnerability Research Team. “MAPP’s launch could not have come at a better time. The MAPP allowed us to provide protection for yesterday’s out-of-band vulnerability within minutes of public disclosure.”

The Sourcefire VRT created, tested and delivered Snort rules designed to detect attacks targeting the Microsoft vulnerability listed below. These new rules are included in the latest Sourcefire Security Enhancement Update (SEU) released at 2 pm EDT on October 23, 2008.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 — Critical vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 could allow remote code execution if an affected system received a specially crafted RPC request. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability without authentication to run arbitrary code. It is possible that this vulnerability could be used to craft a wormable exploit.

The Sourcefire VRT is a group of leading edge intrusion detection and prevention experts working to proactively discover, assess and respond to the latest trends in hacking activities, intrusion attempts and vulnerabilities. This team is also supported by the vast resources of the open source Snort community, making it the largest group dedicated to advances in the network security industry.

About Sourcefire

Sourcefire, Inc. (Nasdaq:FIRE), Snort creator and open source innovator, is a world leader in Enterprise Threat Management (ETM) solutions. Sourcefire is transforming the way Global 2000 organizations and government agencies manage and minimize network security risks with its 3D Approach – Discover, Determine, Defend – to securing real networks. This ETM approach equips customers with an efficient and effective layered security defense – protecting network assets before, during and after an attack. Through the years, Sourcefire has been consistently recognized for its innovation and industry leadership by customers, media and industry analysts alike – with more than 40 awards and accolades. Today, the names Sourcefire and founder Martin Roesch have grown synonymous with innovation and network security intelligence. For more information about Sourcefire, please visit http://www.sourcefire.com.

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