MacOS High Sierra Bug Allows Login As Root With No Password
'A trivial-to-exploit flaw in macOS High Sierra, aka macOS 10.13, allows users to gain admin rights, or log in as root, without a password. The security bug is triggered via the authentication dialog box in Apple's operating system, which prompts you for an administrator's username and password when you need to do stuff like configure privacy and network settings. If you type in "root" as the username, leave the password box blank, hit "enter" and then click on unlock a few times, the prompt disappears and, congrats, you now have admin rights. You can do this from the user login screen. The vulnerability effectively allows someone with physical access to the machine to log in, cause extra mischief, install malware, and so on. You should not leave your vulnerable Mac unattended until you can fix the problem. And while obviously this situation is not the end of the world -- it's certainly far from a remote hole or a disk decryption technique -- it's just really, really sad to see megabucks Apple drop the ball like this. Developer Lemi Orhan Ergan was the first to alert the world to the flaw. The Register notes: "If you have a root account enabled and a password for it set, the black password trick will not work. So, keep the account enabled and set a root password right now..."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/11/28/2135236 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
I'm reading that this is also exploitable over VNC. So even more terrible than originally reported. :-( E -------------------------------------------- Q: Why is this email five sentences or less? A: http://five.sentenc.es On Wed, 29 Nov 2017, at 11:58, Peter Reutemann wrote:
'A trivial-to-exploit flaw in macOS High Sierra, aka macOS 10.13, allows users to gain admin rights, or log in as root, without a password. The security bug is triggered via the authentication dialog box in Apple's operating system, which prompts you for an administrator's username and password when you need to do stuff like configure privacy and network settings. If you type in "root" as the username, leave the password box blank, hit "enter" and then click on unlock a few times, the prompt disappears and, congrats, you now have admin rights. You can do this from the user login screen. The vulnerability effectively allows someone with physical access to the machine to log in, cause extra mischief, install malware, and so on. You should not leave your vulnerable Mac unattended until you can fix the problem. And while obviously this situation is not the end of the world -- it's certainly far from a remote hole or a disk decryption technique -- it's just really, really sad to see megabucks Apple drop the ball like this.
Developer Lemi Orhan Ergan was the first to alert the world to the flaw. The Register notes: "If you have a root account enabled and a password for it set, the black password trick will not work. So, keep the account enabled and set a root password right now..."'
-- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/11/28/2135236
Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/ _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug
On Wed, 29 Nov 2017 11:58:31 +1300, Peter Reutemann wrote:
'The vulnerability effectively allows someone with physical access to the machine to log in, cause extra mischief, install malware, and so on.'
How exactly are you supposed to secure a machine against someone with physical access to it?
On Wed, 29 Nov 2017, at 21:39, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
How exactly are you supposed to secure a machine against someone with physical access to it?
Yeah that's a fair call. I guess you could use the disk encryption provided by FileVaul--- oh nevermind this bug affects that too. I have to laugh, because this seriously is so terrible that it verges on tragic comedy. :-/ E -------------------------------------------- Q: Why is this email five sentences or less? A: http://five.sentenc.es On Wed, 29 Nov 2017, at 21:39, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
On Wed, 29 Nov 2017 11:58:31 +1300, Peter Reutemann wrote:
'The vulnerability effectively allows someone with physical access to the machine to log in, cause extra mischief, install malware, and so on.'
How exactly are you supposed to secure a machine against someone with physical access to it? _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug
'A trivial-to-exploit flaw in macOS High Sierra, aka macOS 10.13, allows users to gain admin rights, or log in as root, without a password. The security bug is triggered via the authentication dialog box in Apple's operating system, which prompts you for an administrator's username and password when you need to do stuff like configure privacy and network settings. If you type in "root" as the username, leave the password box blank, hit "enter" and then click on unlock a few times, the prompt disappears and, congrats, you now have admin rights. You can do this from the user login screen. The vulnerability effectively allows someone with physical access to the machine to log in, cause extra mischief, install malware, and so on. You should not leave your vulnerable Mac unattended until you can fix the problem. And while obviously this situation is not the end of the world -- it's certainly far from a remote hole or a disk decryption technique -- it's just really, really sad to see megabucks Apple drop the ball like this.
Developer Lemi Orhan Ergan was the first to alert the world to the flaw. The Register notes: "If you have a root account enabled and a password for it set, the black password trick will not work. So, keep the account enabled and set a root password right now..."'
There seems to be a fix available: https://twitter.com/radian/status/935904628348141568 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
There seems to be a fix available: https://twitter.com/radian/status/935904628348141568
And it has been unfixed: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17/12/04/1250259 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
participants (3)
-
Eric Light -
Lawrence D'Oliveiro -
Peter Reutemann