Slashdot Mirror
Mac OS X Struck By Severe Security Hole
An anonymous reader writes "Macworld is reporting about a new security hole in Mac OS X that can be exploited to compromise a system if the user simply visits a web site with Safari. Currently, no vendor patch is available. Secunia has a demonstration of the vulnerability and suggestions for temporary workarounds."
.. finally learned how to "Think Different".
You can test this by downloading this harmless exmaple:
http://www.heise.de/security/dienste/browsercheck
...and sending the resulting JPG to yourself in Mail.app.
This is rooted in something that has been true about Mac OS in general for over 22 years, which is that any file or document - including executables - can have any icon. Other elements of the OS (such as the Get Info window) properly identify it as a Terminal document (shell script), and show that it is opened with Terminal, but most users won't see or understand this.
I'd expect a security update that addresses this *very* soon. This is a bad one.
I don't use Safari because it doesn't render pages as well as a mozilla based browser, and now I have a reason to gloat :)
Get Camino here. Camino is an OS X native browser using the gecko rendering engine. Looks better than Safari, is faster than Safari, and apparently is more secure than Safari. Plus the security is more easily tunable.
Most Mac users have heard of it by now, but I'm just giving them another plug because it kicks ass.
This is quite a nasty little exploit so I suggest making the change ASAP.
I did this years ago.
Can someone remind me what is the point of a browser allowing "driveby downloads" and automatically launching the content of the download?
Safari has a nice download manager that lists the most recent downloads, and by simply double clicking on the one you trust and want to view is up to you.
This is at least over a 1 year old issue: http://www.net-security.org/vuln.php?id=3461
Is it too much to ask for normal users to double click on a file to launch it? This is what we used to do, and still do with email, ftp, removable media, networked drives, everything. What is the point of a driveby download and launch?
Why isn't Secunia being flamed here for releasing details of an exploit before Apple has had a chance to patch it? Are there not enough details for someone to create their own version? I may be wrong, but I did not notice one mention of any fact that indicates that Apple was notified of the problem and/or given an opportunity to fix the problem. I am used to seeing such information releases eing labeled as "irresponsible" but I have not seen any discussion of this aspect of the story yet.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
this exploit can only affect items that the user has rights to
Like ~/Documents/ where you're encouraged to store pretty much everything you make with your machine.
Or ~/Pictures/ where iPhoto keeps everything it loads up.
Or ~/Music/ where iTunes puts all your music.
Or wherever the hell iMovie keeps what you build with it - probably either ~/Movies/ or ~/Documents/
Or wherever the hell GarageBand keeps its work.
Sure, the machine still boots. But if a script does rm -rf ~*.* you're kinda fucked. Why is it that Slashdotters always say 'oh, this exploit just affects userland, no big deal'?
egypt urnash minimal art.
No, it does NOT ask for an admin password, however you need to be logged in as a privledged user (administrator) for it to work. A standard user clicking the test link does not execute calculator, an admin user does. All the more reason to not do your everyday work in an administrative account. My test was Safari 2.0.3/OSX 10.4.5. Now if the code tried to do something more system wide through the terminal window it opened, it would probably require a su or sudo authentication. Opening a program or executing some simple code is enough to cause some problems though.
My credit card has been repeatedly comprimised while using Safari.
Most recently, a $300 charge appeared on my statement after visiting this page.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
I believe the poster's comments better relate wishing that hackers would act more like ex-criminals developing security systems. Ie, reformed bank robbers providing a service to make banks more secure; they obviously have the skills, they might as well use them for good.
I think your analogy doesn't really support your point and in fact supports the GP. Reformed bank robbers are not really security experts who can design new security systems, I think you your opinion is based more on movies than on reality. Similarly, hackers are romanticized, their skills exaggerated, in movies and in ill informed nerd mythology spread by sites like slashdot.
It really is that hackers outnumber developers and that developers have to be perfect all the time and one of the hackers just needs to get lucky once. Hackers are often more like specialized technicians that are skilled in a narrow range, not a skilled engineer that can design a system from scratch. And then there are the kiddies.
Yes, its really a bug in LaunchServices, not the browser (any download method is vulnerable). It takes advantage of Apple's split-personality when dealing with files -is file type determined by extension or creator code? This is what can happen when they don't coincide.
For the most part, it always requires less skill to break something than to get something working.
Your car analogy would be good if we were talking about computer code -- it takes a lot more skill to write some good code than to mess it up (in textual form). But that's not what we're talking about here.
We're talking about circumvention of security, often known as "breaking" it; but that break (to circumvent protection) is a very conceptually different break than your car example (to render nonfunctional).
Finding exploits like this takes time, intelligence, and often understanding of the software in question. Especially in a well-crafted system, you have to know how the system works in order to circumvent it.