Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
macOS High Sierra Vulnerability Allegedly Allows Malicious Third-Party Apps to Access Plaintext Keychain Data
macOS High Sierra, released to the public today, could be impacted by a major security flaw that could allow a hacker to steal the usernames and passwords of accounts stored in Keychain.
As it turns out, unsigned apps on macOS High Sierra (and potentially earlier versions of macOS) can allegedly access the Keychain info and display plaintext usernames and passwords without a user's master password.
Security researcher and ex-NSA analyst Patrick Wardle tweeted about the vulnerability early this morning and shared a video of the exploit in action.
For this vulnerability to work, a user needs to download malicious third-party code from an unknown source, something Apple actively discourages with warnings about apps downloaded outside of the Mac App Store or from non-trusted developers. In fact, Apple does not even allow apps from non-trusted developers to be downloaded without explicitly overriding security settings.
As demonstrated in the video above, Wardle created a proof-of-concept app called "keychainStealer" that was able to access plaintext passwords stored in Keychain for Twitter, Facebook, and Bank of America. Wardle spoke to Forbes about the vulnerability and said it's actually not hard to get malicious code running on a Mac even with Apple's protections in place.
As Wardle has not released the full exploit code, it has not been double-checked by MacRumors or another source, so full details on the vulnerability are not known just yet.
Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment about the potential vulnerability.
As it turns out, unsigned apps on macOS High Sierra (and potentially earlier versions of macOS) can allegedly access the Keychain info and display plaintext usernames and passwords without a user's master password.
Security researcher and ex-NSA analyst Patrick Wardle tweeted about the vulnerability early this morning and shared a video of the exploit in action.
on High Sierra (unsigned) apps can programmatically dump & exfil keychain (w/ your plaintext passwords)🍎🙈😭 vid: https://t.co/36M2TcLUAn #smh pic.twitter.com/pqtpjZsSnq
— patrick wardle (@patrickwardle) September 25, 2017
For this vulnerability to work, a user needs to download malicious third-party code from an unknown source, something Apple actively discourages with warnings about apps downloaded outside of the Mac App Store or from non-trusted developers. In fact, Apple does not even allow apps from non-trusted developers to be downloaded without explicitly overriding security settings.
As demonstrated in the video above, Wardle created a proof-of-concept app called "keychainStealer" that was able to access plaintext passwords stored in Keychain for Twitter, Facebook, and Bank of America. Wardle spoke to Forbes about the vulnerability and said it's actually not hard to get malicious code running on a Mac even with Apple's protections in place.
"Without root priveleges, if the user is logged in, I can dump and exfiltrate the keychain, including plaintext passwords," Wardle told Forbes. "Normally you are not supposed to be able do that programmatically."Wardle has not provided the full exploit code for malicious entities to take advantage of, and he believes Apple will patch the problem in a future update.
"Most attacks we see today involve social engineering and seem to be successful targeting Mac users," he added. "I'm not going to say the [keychain] exploit is elegant - but it does the job, doesn't require root and is 100% successful."
As Wardle has not released the full exploit code, it has not been double-checked by MacRumors or another source, so full details on the vulnerability are not known just yet.
Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment about the potential vulnerability.
[ 273 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
23 months ago
Would have been great if he contacted Apple before the OS was released. Just looking for attention. Jerk
23 months ago
Would have been great if he contacted Apple before the OS was released. Just looking for attention. Jerk
1. Would have been even greater if Apple had ppl who found these kind of bugs themselves before release.2. You don't know if he found this yesterday. But sure hate on the guy who might have prevented your bank account password from ending up in the wrong hands.
23 months ago
OMG, to enable this software you have to enter System Preferences, answer YES on two dialogues, and also enter your password. Then it may STEAL your not encoded things stored in the keychain (by default everything is stored encoded). I think I'm going to Windows now. This is just too much!!!
/irony ended
/irony ended
23 months ago
sigh. don't download junk, don't jeopardize your computer. Common sense is the best anti-virus.
23 months ago
If he did find it yesterday, he should have disclosed it to Apple and given them 90 days to fix it.
He doesn't owe Apple anything. Just like Apple doesn't owe him anything. He did them a favour.
23 months ago
I see a lot of people assuming he didn't contact Apple. Does he explicitly say that somewhere? All I see is "Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment". Because if he DID contact Apple and was ignored, he could have either waited for final version to check whether a fix was implemented, then notified general public immediately, or kept the information to himself and waited until tons of people get their computers hacked.
23 months ago
Ah, so Microsoft is hiring these people to expose things on release day. Nice.
LOL, MS has no interest or desire. This isn't 1990, and the PC wars are long over.
[ Read All Comments ]
Satechi, known for its line of accessories for Apple's iOS and Mac devices, today announced the launch of its first HomeKit product, the Dual Smart Outlet.
Priced at $60, the Dual Smart...
Kanex today announced the launch of its iAdapt Multiport Docking Station for the 2018 iPad Pro models, designed to add a range of additional ports to the devices using the built-in USB-C port.
...
Microsoft has released a native Mac version of its To-Do app for the first time, meaning macOS users will no longer have to rely on company's the web app to access the to-do list service.
...
Apple appears to be continuing its recent trend of making app subscriptions more transparent and manageable, as evidenced by another change discovered in the latest developer beta of iOS 13. When you...
Belkin today announced that its InvisiGlass Ultra Front and Back Protection for the latest iPhone models is now available for purchase from Apple.
The InvisiGlass Ultra Front and Back...
Apple this morning released the second beta of watchOS 6, the software that runs on the Apple Watch. The second beta comes two weeks after Apple first unveiled the new update at the Worldwide...
Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 13 update to developers, two weeks after first unveiling the tvOS 13 software at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
Designed for the...
Aspyr has announced that today is the last day of sales for its 32-bit Mac games, in anticipation of Apple's upcoming move to 64-bit only apps on macOS Catalina later this year.
After...
