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Latest Attack Object Updates
  • IDP Daily Update #1454
    posted: 06/29/09
  • NSM Daily Update #1454
    posted: 06/29/09
  • Deep Inspection 5.3r5 and above, 5.4, 6.0 #1454
    posted: 06/29/09
  • Deep Inspection 5.1 and 5.2 #1435
    posted: 06/29/09
  • Deep Inspection 5.0, 5.3r4 and below #1132
    posted: 03/28/08 (04/01/08 for 5.0)
  • Antivirus
    posted: 06/28/09

Title: Apple MacOS X DHCP Response Root Compromise Vulnerability

Severity: HIGH

Description:

A vulnerability has been identified in Apple MacOS X that may allow an attacker to gain root access to a vulnerable system via DHCP responses.

The problem reportedly occurs due to certain default setting that could cause a vulnerable host to trust a malicious DHCP server for user, group, and volume mounting settings. It has been reported that systems running MacOS X attempt to negotiate DHCP on all available interfaces. If an Airport Card is installed and a network is not found, then that system will attempt to connect to any network in order to obtain an address. The system will also attempt to connect to an LDAP or NetInfo server on the network by using DHCP provided fields.

The vulnerability exists because by default the system places a higher priority for the LDAP or NetInfo server than that of the local user settings and implicitly trusts the server for correct information. As a result of this, by hosting and malicious configuring a DHCP server on the internal network of an affected system, it has been reported that an attacker may capable of logging into a vulnerable system using any login name and a user id (uid) of 0.

Successful exploitation of this issue may allow a remote attacker to gain root level access to a vulnerable system when the system is started in a malicious network.

Although unconfirmed, this issue could affect Apple MacOS X versions released prior to 10.2.

Affected Products:

  • Apple Mac OS X 10.0.2
  • Apple Mac OS X 10.0.3
  • Apple Mac OS X 10.2.8
  • Apple Mac OS X 10.3.2
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.2.0
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.2.1
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.2.2
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.2.3
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.2.4
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.2.5
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.2.6
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.2.7
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.2.8
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.3.0
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.3.1
  • Apple Mac OS X Server 10.3.2

References:

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