Root Access Sudo Bug Found to Affect macOS Big Sur
A sudo bug that can grant an attacker root access has been discovered to affect macOS Big Sur (via ZDNet).
The security vulnerability, identified last week as "CVE-2021-3156" by the Qualys Security Team, affects sudo, which is a program that allows users to run commands with the security privileges of another user, such as an administrator. The bug triggers a "heap overflow" in sudo that changes the current user's privileges to enable root-level access. This can give an attacker access to the entire system. An attacker would need to gain low-level access to a system first to be able to exploit the bug, such as via planted malware.
Sudo is part of many Unix-like systems, including macOS, but it was initially unknown if the vulnerability affected Mac machines since it was only tested by Qualys on Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora. Security researcher Matthew Hickey has now confirmed that the most recent version of macOS, macOS Big Sur 11.2 can be subject to the sudo attack.
Last week, there was speculation that the macOS Big Sur 11.2 update may address the sudo vulnerability, though it was not definitively known at the time if the bug would affect macOS. While it was found that sudo was left unchanged in macOS Big Sur 11.2, it is now clear that macOS is affected by the exploit.
With some minor modifications, Hickey found that the sudo bug could be used to grant attackers access to macOS root accounts, and the discovery has now been verified by Carnegie Mellon University vulnerability analyst Will Dormann.
Apple has reportedly been notified of the CVE-2021-3156 vulnerability, and due to the severity of the issue, a patch will likely be released soon.
Popular Stories
You'd think things would be slowing down heading into the holidays, but this week saw a whirlwind of Apple leaks and rumors while Apple started its next cycle of betas following last week's release of iOS 26.2 and related updates.
This week also saw the release of a new Apple Music integration with ChatGPT, so read on below for all the details on this week's biggest stories!
Top Stories
i...
Apple hasn't updated the Apple TV 4K since 2022, and 2025 was supposed to be the year that we got a refresh. There were rumors suggesting Apple would release the new Apple TV before the end of 2025, but it looks like that's not going to happen now.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said several times across 2024 and 2025 that Apple would...
Next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with under-screen Face ID, and the front camera will be moved to the top-left corner of the screen, according to a new report from The Information's Wayne Ma and Qianer Liu.
As a result of these changes, the report said the iPhone 18 Pro models will not have a pill-shaped Dynamic Island cutout at the top of the screen....
Since the beginning of December, Apple has been pushing iPhone users who opted to stay on iOS 18 to install iOS 26 instead. Apple started by making the iOS 18 upgrades less visible, and has now transitioned to making new iOS 18 updates unavailable on any device capable of running iOS 26.
If you have an iPhone 11 or later, Apple is no longer offering new versions of iOS 18, even though there...
There has been a whirlwind of rumors over the last few days, sourced from leaked internal software designed for the iPhone and the Mac, and news sites like The Information. Below, we have a quick recap of everything we've heard this week, which serves as a guide to Apple's product plans in 2026 and beyond.
We've organized the info by likely release date, though there are some products that...
Apple is significantly increasing its reliance on Samsung for iPhone memory as component prices surge, according to The Korea Economic Daily.
Apple is said to be expanding the share of iPhone memory it sources from Samsung due to rapidly rising memory prices. The shift is expected to result in Samsung supplying roughly 60% to 70% of the low-power DRAM used in the iPhone 17, compared with a...
Italy's Competition Authority (AGCM) has imposed a €98.6 million ($116 million) fine on Apple over its App Tracking Transparency feature.
Since the release of iOS 14.5 in April 2021, Apple has required apps to ask for permission before tracking a user's activity across other apps and websites for personalized advertising, as part of a feature named App Tracking Transparency. If a user...
