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Symantec Confirmed Norton AV source code exposed by Indian hackers



Symantec has confirmed that hackers gained access to the Norton Antivirus' source code. An Indian hacking group named as "The Lords of Dharmaraja"(In Tamil, The one who help poor people called as Dharmaraja), has threatened to publicly disclose the source code on the internet.

First, Hackers leaked the name of the source code files in pastebin. Symantec says it has investigated the claim, and that - rather than source code - it was documentation dated from April 1999 related to an API (application programming interface) used by the product.

And secondly, the hacking group shared source code related to what appears to have been the 2006 version of Symantec's Norton AntiVirus product with journalists from Infosec Island.

"Yama Tough", member of the hacker group posted posted the content to PasteBin and subsequently published messages on Google+ about the alleged breach.

The hackers claim that it is working on creating mirror sites for its content, as it has felt pressured and censored by US and Indian government agencies.

Chris Paden, a Symantec spokesperson, Sr. Manager for Corporate Communications at Symantec emailed Infosec Island editors with the following statement concerning the exposure of source code for the company's Norton antivirus product::

"Symantec can confirm that a segment of its source code has been accessed. Symantec’s own network was not breached, but rather that of a third party entity."

"We are still gathering information on the details and are not in a position to provide specifics on the third party involved."

"Presently, we have no indication that the code disclosure impacts the functionality or security of Symantec's solutions. Furthermore, there are no indications that customer information has been impacted or exposed at this time."