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OS X sudoers exploit found in the wild

blog.malwarebytes.org

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Re: OS X sudoers exploit found in the wild

#53
post #47

Would it be possible to mitigate this by setting the immutable flag on /etc/sudoers: chflags uchg /etc/sudoers

No, because the vulnerability is that you can write to arbitrary files with root privileges. It turns out that sudoers is the easiest file to write to to gain persistent root, but there are millions of other things: /etc/passwd, /etc/cron.d, /root/.ssh/authorized_keys, any binary that's run by root, etc.

Re: OS X sudoers exploit found in the wild

#54
post #48
post #20

Oh man, I really want to do it on all the macs at the Apple store, and start a little botnet. Problem is, I don't really have any use for 10 or so rooted macs. I mean, I could rm them, but I'd never do that, that's mean. And I wouldn't feel good about using the camera, even though the computers are in public, it's icky. Perhaps a DoS? There's nobody that I dislike enough for that. I think I'd be so rich if I wasn't s…

There's a reason that the store staff are instructed to encourage you to leave the store if you open a terminal.

They are?!

Re: OS X sudoers exploit found in the wild

#55

I'm not sure who makes me more cranky: Apple for apparently sitting on the fix, or Stefan Esser for flinging the vulnerability into the breeze for anyone to catch. Esser has his reasons - "Short reminder: Europeans are not allowed to disclose vulns privately to a foreign company like Apple without registering dual-use export"[1] - but it's hard to believe he couldn't have told them anonymously. Disclosures make caree…

> Stefan Esser for flinging the vulnerability into the breeze for anyone to catch

Then let me help you with this one. The former is responsibility of the worlds most profit corporation with tens of thousands of employees, and the latter is under the responsibility of a random guy on the internet.

Re: OS X sudoers exploit found in the wild

#57
post #47

Would it be possible to mitigate this by setting the immutable flag on /etc/sudoers: chflags uchg /etc/sudoers

/etc/sudoers is not the only potential target here. Even if that did work, this vulnerability could still brick your entire OS. They could overwrite any file they wanted to.
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