Endpoint Protection

 View Only
  • 1.  Security Log entry BOMBARDMENT - Rollout of SEP Clients causing HUGE issues!

    Posted Feb 18, 2010 01:35 AM

    Good evening,

    We have just finished rolling out SEP 11.0.5002.333 onto over 85+ Workstations nationwide - everything went swimmingly well (well atleast we thought so) until over the last few days we have began to notice some strange happenings. I first began my research 2 days ago, sifting through over hundreds of websites and forums for an answer, having only come up with ONE relevant link - funnily enough coming from this exact website - but has been over a year since the last comment, and ended with no official statement from Symantec or answer as a whole, the topic can be found here:

    http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/sep-11-security-event-id-599-domain-controller

    Moving on.

    Soon after installation (the next day for example when users came into the office after the Weekend) they began to receive an error upon trying to log in, stating that 'Their Security Log was full, and needed an Administrator to log on to clear' - obviously this sparked my interest as this hasn't happened over the last 18 months since these workstations went out - and obviously anything to do with Security/Logs is the upmost of importance. Upon further inspection I found that indeed the Security Log had become full, and not from normal entries (one every so often) it had become BOMBARDED (See images below).

    PC2-Edit.JPGPC1-Edit.JPG

    Think there had been some 'over the weekend' attempt to hack/gain access to our internal network I went into a fury trying to decipher the cause, going through server/firewall logs for over 5 hours. To my amazement I found the above link, pointing me in the direction of Symantec, and the cause for our issues.. SEP. Upon looking deeper into the entries I found that there are THREE main culprits; CValidateComCaller, LSASS.exe and svchost.exe (See logs below):
     

    Event Type: Failure Audit
    Event Source: Security
    Event Category: Detailed Tracking
    Event ID: 599
    Date:  18/02/2010
    Time:  11:44:32 AM
    User:  NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
    Computer: [PC NAME]
    Description:
    Unprotection of auditable protected data.
      Data Description:  CValidateComCaller
      Key Identifier:  0df96b2f-0cd9-47c1-8a76-72da5ee2afc0
      Protected Data Flags: 0x0
      Protection Algorithms: 3DES-168 , SHA1-160
      Failure Reason:  0xD
    
    For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
    
    
    Event Type: Failure Audit
    Event Source: Security
    Event Category: Detailed Tracking
    Event ID: 861
    Date:  18/02/2010
    Time:  8:59:50 AM
    User:  NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
    Computer: [PC NAME]
    Description:
    The Windows Firewall has detected an application listening for incoming traffic.
    
    Name: -
    Path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
    Process identifier: 1108
    User account: NETWORK SERVICE
    User domain: NT AUTHORITY
    Service: Yes
    RPC server: No
    IP version: IPv4
    IP protocol: UDP
    Port number: 63481
    Allowed: No
    User notified: No
    For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
    

    The above are just TWO of the entries, the only differences between the logs are the Event number; either 861 or 599 and the Port Numbers. I have spent the last couple days trying to find a resolution for this, one I have found a QUICK fix, which I am NOT happy with as a final fix - and something Symantec NEEDS to look into. The quick fix applied is setting the option "Overwrite As Needed" under the Security Log settings - also read (over my travels) that the disabling of the GPO or LGPO setting to log 'Failure Audits' is also a fix.

    Again the above is NOT a satisfactory resolution as I SHOULDN'T have to be disabling anything, let alone SECURITY related settings!

    I anxiously await replies as this is becoming an annoyance that myself and my I.T. Staff do not want to deal with every morning - going around over 85+ Workstations and manually clearing logs is TOTALLY unacceptable!



  • 2.  RE: Security Log entry BOMBARDMENT - Rollout of SEP Clients causing HUGE issues!

    Posted Feb 18, 2010 01:54 AM
    Try by uninstalling NTP(Network Threat protection) in one pc and see the result.This you can do from add/remove programs select SEP click change go for modify...


  • 3.  RE: Security Log entry BOMBARDMENT - Rollout of SEP Clients causing HUGE issues!
    Best Answer

    Posted Feb 18, 2010 04:49 AM

    Hi Trident911,

    There was an issue matching what you report, but it was fixed in SEP 11 MR3.  Are you 100% positive that the affected computers are RU5?

    Event ID 599 Failure Audit occurs after Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) is installed.

    If this is occuring with SEP 11 RU5, it is probably best to open a case with Technical Support.  They can assist with any advanced investigation necessary.

    Thanks and best regards,

    Mick 



  • 4.  RE: Security Log entry BOMBARDMENT - Rollout of SEP Clients causing HUGE issues!

    Posted Feb 18, 2010 04:56 AM
    Hello! Try disabling Windows Firewall since SEP has embedded firewall. There will be conflict with the two components.


  • 5.  RE: Security Log entry BOMBARDMENT - Rollout of SEP Clients causing HUGE issues!

    Posted Feb 19, 2010 10:18 AM
    @Mick2009:

    It seems that as alot of our Workstations had been pointed at an older version of SEPM (Pre-MR3) and the move across to SEPM 11 RU5 didn't seem to upgrade the clients (I would think this would be a good addition to Enpoint Protection Mangement no?) that we had a mixture of older MR3 and RU5 versions.

    Upon manually pushing out over 70+ packages to affected workstations it seems that the Security Log issues have been rectified - I thank you for your guidance.

    ----------

    I do have one more question before making this thread as 'Solved', following on from what Jomargonzales mentioned - Am I SAFE to completly disabled the Windows Firewall service within XP/Windows 7 machines if I am using SEP 11 RU5 Clients with all options (excluding Lotus Notes scanner) installed?

    Cheers,
    Trident911


  • 6.  RE: Security Log entry BOMBARDMENT - Rollout of SEP Clients causing HUGE issues!

    Posted Feb 19, 2010 10:45 AM
    Hi Trident911,

    I'm glad to hear that the bombardment has stopped!  Many thanks for updating the forum with your status.  It benefits future visitors with the same issue.

    It is possible to distribute the latest client software automatically from the SEPM.  Check out the "auto-upgrade" section of Migrating to Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 RU5  and (even better) How to deploy the Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) client Release Update 5 or later with current virus definitions and intrusion prevention signatures.

    And, yes, I recommend that Windows Firewall be completely disabled if using SEP's firewall component, Network Threat Protection.  When two softwrae firewalls that run on one computer at the same time can drain resources, and the firewalls might have rules that conflict with each other.  Some additional information is available in About Windows Firewall and Symantec Endpoint Protection's NTP but my strong recommendation is to pick one (NTP or WF) and use that exclusively.

    Thanks again,

    Mick