MacOS X SoftwareUpdate Arbitrary Package Installation Vulnerability

BID:5176

Info

MacOS X SoftwareUpdate Arbitrary Package Installation Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 5176
Class: Design Error
CVE:
Remote: Yes
Local: No
Published: Jul 08 2002 12:00AM
Updated: Jul 08 2002 12:00AM
Credit: Discovery credited to Russell Harding <[email protected]>.
Vulnerable: Apple Mac OS X 10.1.5
Apple Mac OS X 10.1.4
Apple Mac OS X 10.1.3
Apple Mac OS X 10.1.2
Apple Mac OS X 10.1.1
Apple Mac OS X 10.1
Not Vulnerable:

Discussion

MacOS X SoftwareUpdate Arbitrary Package Installation Vulnerability

A vulnerability has been reported for MacOS X where an attacker may use SoftwareUpdate to install malicious software on the vulnerable system. SoftwareUpdate uses HTTP, without any authentication, to obtain updates from Apple. Any updated packages are installed on the system as the root user.

In order to exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must control the machine located at swquery.apple.com, from the perspective of the vulnerable client. It may be possible to create this condition through some known techniques, including DNS cache poisoning and DNS spoofing.

Exploit / POC

MacOS X SoftwareUpdate Arbitrary Package Installation Vulnerability

An exploit has been provided by Russell Harding <[email protected]> to take advantage of this vulnerability. Further details may be found at the following URL:
http://www.cunap.com/~hardingr/projects/osx/exploit.html.

Solution / Fix

MacOS X SoftwareUpdate Arbitrary Package Installation Vulnerability

Solution:
Look for updates from Apple on http://www.info.apple.com/support/downloads.html.

Apple has released fixes.


Apple Mac OS X 10.1

Apple Mac OS X 10.1.1

Apple Mac OS X 10.1.2

Apple Mac OS X 10.1.3

Apple Mac OS X 10.1.4

Apple Mac OS X 10.1.5

References

MacOS X SoftwareUpdate Arbitrary Package Installation Vulnerability

References:

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