Apple Mac OS X Safari Dashboard Widget Download Validation Bypass Vulnerability

BID:13694

Info

Apple Mac OS X Safari Dashboard Widget Download Validation Bypass Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 13694
Class: Design Error
CVE: CVE-2005-1474
Remote: Yes
Local: No
Published: May 20 2005 12:00AM
Updated: Jul 12 2009 02:56PM
Credit: Stephan Meyers is credited with the discovery of this issue.
Vulnerable: Apple Mac OS X Server 10.4
Apple Mac OS X 10.4
Not Vulnerable: Apple Mac OS X Server 10.4.1
Apple Mac OS X 10.4.1

Discussion

Apple Mac OS X Safari Dashboard Widget Download Validation Bypass Vulnerability

Apple Mac OS X is susceptible to a Safari download validation bypass vulnerability when downloading Dashboard widgets. This issue is due to Safari improperly considering Dashboard widgets to be "safe" content.

It is demonstrated that an attacker can cause Safari to automatically download, and then install widgets into the users '~/Library/Widgets' directory. This happens without user intervention or notification.

Reportedly, once widgets have been automatically installed via Safari, the normal validation required for widgets to gain access to system resources is skipped, allowing complete system access to the malicious widgets, however, this has not been confirmed by Symantec.

This issue allows remote attackers to install malicious code into the dashboard without user intervention or knowledge. This will likely result in malicious script, or machine code being executed in the context of the targeted user.

Mac OS X version 10.4 is vulnerable to this issue.

Exploit / POC

Apple Mac OS X Safari Dashboard Widget Download Validation Bypass Vulnerability

The following Web sites contain proof of concept examples exploiting this vulnerability. Symantec cannot guarantee the safety, or contents of these Web sites:

http://stephan.com/widgets/zaptastic/
http://mithrastheprophet.blogspot.com/2005/05/safari-dashboard-vulnerability-in-os-x.html

Solution / Fix

Apple Mac OS X Safari Dashboard Widget Download Validation Bypass Vulnerability

Solution:
Apple has released advisory APPLE-SA-2005-05-19, along with fixes to address this and other issues. Please see the referenced advisory for more information.


Apple Mac OS X Server 10.4

Apple Mac OS X 10.4

References

Apple Mac OS X Safari Dashboard Widget Download Validation Bypass Vulnerability

References:

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