ActiveX filtering through firewalls

["Eric Samburn" <e_samburn () hotmail com>]

This may be out-of-date, but I know some companies still blindly rely
on a firewall or proxy to filter ActiveX and think it is safe.

Last year, CERT / Steven Bellovin + others wrote a report ("Results of
the Security in ActiveX Workshop") to discuss ActiveX security.
Inside there, it mentioned that it is still unsafe to filter ActiveX
on the firewall since HTTPS traffic will tunnel through unchecked
(unless the SSL connections are terminated at the firewall / proxy
level).

If a hacker want to compromise a site through ActiveX, they will
establish a secure web server with exploit code, and their exploit
potentially can get through lots of company firewalls undetected.

The CERT report also has recommendation to secure the desktop for
ActiveX.
But I find that the recommendations will be difficult to
implement / manage in a large company with lots of desktop.
I know some company only allow Flash control to get through
but not other ActiveX control.
I don't know how they implement it, but may be using a combination
of "CodeBaseSearch Path" and "Administrator Apporved" attributes.

I wonder if this is a common problem for the security community ?
(i.e. people just block ActiveX on the firewall.)
How would you secure ActiveX in your environment ?
Any good practice you know of ???



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