📄 Description (English)
Atomic Alarm Clock 6.3 contains a stack overflow vulnerability that allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code by supplying a malicious string to the display name textbox in the Time Zones Clock configuration. Attackers can craft a buffer with structured exception handling overwrite and encoded shellcode to bypass SafeSEH protections and execute arbitrary commands with application privileges.
🤖 AI Executive Summary
CVE-2020-37221 is a stack overflow vulnerability in Atomic Alarm Clock 6.3 that allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code through a malicious display name in the Time Zones Clock configuration. The vulnerability bypasses SafeSEH protections using structured exception handling overwrites and encoded shellcode. With a CVSS score of 8.4 and no available patch, this poses a significant risk to organizations using this legacy software.
📄 Description (Arabic)
🤖 AI Intelligence Analysis Analyzed: May 20, 2026 01:17
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia Impact Assessment
This vulnerability primarily affects Saudi government agencies, educational institutions, and corporate environments that may have deployed Atomic Alarm Clock 6.3 on workstations. The risk is elevated in organizations with shared computer labs or multi-user systems. While not directly impacting critical infrastructure sectors (banking, energy, telecom), the local execution requirement limits widespread exploitation but poses significant insider threat risks in government and educational institutions under NCA oversight.
🏢 Affected Saudi Sectors
Government
Education
Corporate/Enterprise
Healthcare
🎯 MITRE ATT&CK Techniques
⚖️ Saudi Risk Score (AI)
6.2
/ 10.0
🔧 Remediation Steps (English)
Immediate Actions:
1. Inventory all systems running Atomic Alarm Clock 6.3 across the organization
2. Restrict local access to affected systems and implement principle of least privilege
3. Disable or uninstall Atomic Alarm Clock 6.3 if not critical to operations
4. Monitor for suspicious process execution from the application directory
Compensating Controls:
1. Implement application whitelisting to prevent unauthorized code execution
2. Enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) at OS level
3. Restrict user permissions to prevent modification of application configuration files
4. Deploy endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to detect shellcode execution patterns
5. Monitor Windows Event Logs for abnormal process creation and exception handling events
Detection Rules:
1. Alert on any process spawned from Atomic Alarm Clock installation directory
2. Monitor for structured exception handling (SEH) chain manipulation attempts
3. Flag any write operations to Time Zones Clock configuration with suspicious string lengths
4. Detect encoded shellcode patterns in application memory
🔧 خطوات المعالجة (العربية)
الإجراءات الفورية:
1. حصر جميع الأنظمة التي تعمل بـ Atomic Alarm Clock 6.3 في المنظمة
2. تقييد الوصول المحلي للأنظمة المتأثرة وتطبيق مبدأ الامتيازات الأقل
3. تعطيل أو إلغاء تثبيت Atomic Alarm Clock 6.3 إذا لم تكن حرجة للعمليات
4. مراقبة تنفيذ العمليات المريبة من دليل التطبيق
الضوابط البديلة:
1. تطبيق قائمة بيضاء للتطبيقات لمنع تنفيذ الكود غير المصرح به
2. تفعيل Data Execution Prevention (DEP) و Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) على مستوى نظام التشغيل
3. تقييد أذونات المستخدم لمنع تعديل ملفات إعدادات التطبيق
4. نشر حلول كشف الاستجابة على نقاط النهاية (EDR) للكشف عن أنماط تنفيذ الكود الضار
5. مراقبة سجلات Windows للكشف عن إنشاء العمليات غير الطبيعي
قواعد الكشف:
1. تنبيه عند تشغيل أي عملية من دليل تثبيت Atomic Alarm Clock
2. مراقبة محاولات التلاعب بسلسلة معالجة الاستثناءات المهيكلة
3. وضع علامة على أي عمليات كتابة لإعدادات Time Zones Clock بأطوال نصوص مريبة
4. الكشف عن أنماط الكود الضار المشفرة في ذاكرة التطبيق
📋 Regulatory Compliance Mapping
🟢 NCA ECC 2024
A.5.1.1 - Information security policies and procedures
A.5.2.1 - User access management and authorization
A.5.2.3 - Management of privileged access rights
A.5.3.1 - Password management
A.8.1.1 - Audit logging and monitoring
A.8.2.1 - Event logging
A.8.3.1 - Protection of log information
🔵 SAMA CSF
ID.AM-2 - Software inventory and asset management
PR.AC-1 - Access control policy and procedures
PR.AC-4 - Access rights and privileges management
DE.CM-1 - System monitoring and anomaly detection
DE.CM-3 - Unauthorized software detection
RS.MI-2 - Incident response and containment
🟡 ISO 27001:2022
A.5.1.1 - Policies for information security
A.5.2.1 - User registration and de-registration
A.5.2.3 - Management of privileged access rights
A.8.1.1 - Information security event logging
A.8.2.1 - Monitoring system use
A.8.3.1 - Protection of log information
A.12.4.1 - Event logging
A.14.2.1 - Secure development policy