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Screensaver Bug in Mac OS X

Posted by michael on from the bomb-icon dept.

dave1212 writes "Still too early to tell, but there seems to be a screen saver password exploit in Mac OS X. It was discovered and postedon the Full Disclosure list earlier today. Theories, personal tests, and rumours abound, with some success stories, and the possibility that it could affect all Cocoa programs. Speculation points toward a 2048 character buffer, with people using the emacs shortcuts Ctrl-K and Ctrl-Y to fill the text field in under half a minute."

10 of 452 comments (clear)

  1. Didn't work for me ... by wtmcgee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    using 10.2.6 - not saying it's not a real bug, just can't get it to crash my screen-saver.

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  2. This is NOTHING by SeanTobin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is nothing to be upset about. Heck, windows users have had this feature since windows 95. 3-finger salute and end the screen saver task :)

    Security via screensavers should never be trusted. I'm not quite sure why its still being put in place. WindowsXP has a slightly better idea in that it will quick log you off if you ask it to... Of course gnome/kde stole that idea before MS was able to integrate it into XP/2k :)

    Now, if this can be used as a buffer overflow attack as stated in the second link, that can be a problem. Not so much that a local user will overflow thier own system and gain local root, but the fact that this is the same throughout multiple cocoa apps shows the possibility of one of those being remotely exploitable.

    Of course that's only for the 4 people running OSX as a server.

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  3. I writed this commented.. by banal+avenger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's no wonder why Apple didn't reply, look at the subject of the email sent to Apple: "forgot your screensaver password ?? Hackit anyway." Must have been Jeff K reporting the bug.

    In other news, a similar bug has been an issue on the Mac OS X version of Folding@Home. The screen saver crashes when lock screen is activated, and it's been months since I first noticed it, and I've seen it mentioned on the Folding boards, and it still hasn't been fixed. I agree with some of the people on the Macslash forum: Don't rely on screen savers if you have truly sensitive data within in reach of scrupulous characters.

  4. ok people wtf by carpe_noctem · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I saw this "exploit" on full-dis, where it started a rather large thread, given how silly this bug actually is (a screensaver breaker...ooooh now I'm quaking in my boots). I thought it was excessive that -anyone- responded to his thread, and now it got posted on /. ? What gives?

    Probably going to get modded down for troll, but I had to vent. Excuse me. ;)

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  5. I believe this is no longer true... by igabe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I am not mistaken, this was on Slashdot a while back. Apple was quick to correct this.

    The only problem(an ironic one) is that they updated the flaw through Software Update =)

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  6. Since you need physical access... by crispy1083 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...you can probably just boot using a CD or external hard drive, which results in a much worse security problem, since it'll give you access to Mac OS 9. You can use that to trash the Mac OS X system, since you can destroy all the normally hidden files and not worry about permissions.

    1. Re:Since you need physical access... by Thaidog · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There is a firmware password program that you can dowload from apple to make sure that only the system selected gets booted into... otherwise you need a password to boot from a CD or another boot folder. You have to hold option down at boot time and a password field comes up. There is also a password screen for the mulitple users option for OS 9 that secures booting into it. The only question is Are there any problems with the security of the security system in OS 9 like this bug in OS X? For that reason OS 9 should still be patched and support for another couple of years just like micrsoft was still supplying patches for NT untill a few weeks ago.

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  7. Get root access by gotr00t · · Score: 5, Interesting

    On any computer using OSX, it is possible to change the root password with 6 easy steps:

    Reboot the computer
    Hold down appl ctrl + S
    Type "mount -uw /"
    "su" (it dosen't ask for a password)
    "/sbin/systemstarter"
    "passwd"

  8. Because Panthers run faster by igabe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just FYI Panther seems immune to this exploit.

    Tried doing the procedure ~10 minutes in the Screen Saver and nothing happened. Then tried again in few other cocoa apps. Still nothing. Just worked like normal(for once this is a good thing).

    My only question is if Apple acknowledged this flaw in Jaguar and then fixed it in Panther, or if Apple just ended up fixing it quite accidentally.

    And yes, I realize most people can't just upgrade to Panther yet to fix this rather major oversight on Apple's part.

    Yea and I think that you should be able to use Exposé as a screensaver =)

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  9. Re:Finally, there's no objection! by cscx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Reminds me of that old local root exploit in SunOS where you could just hold down the enter key at the login: prompt and get root.