-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 iDefense Security Advisory 05.12.09 http://labs.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/ May 12, 2009 I. BACKGROUND Mac OS X is a computer operating systems available from Apple Inc. OS X is the tenth major version of Apple's operating system for Macintosh computers and is Unix-based. For more information, see the vendor's site found at the following link. http://www.apple.com/support/leopard/internet/ II. DESCRIPTION Local exploitation of an index validation vulnerability in Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X xnu kernel could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the security context of the kernel. The Mac OS X xnu (Mach) kernel implements workqueues. This allows the kernel to schedule events to take place in a task. An input validation error exists within this implementation, which can lead to execution of arbitrary code in the kernel. III. ANALYSIS Exploitation of this issue allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the security context of the kernel. An attacker would need a local account on a vulnerable system to exploit this issue. Upon successful exploitation, the attacker could elevate privileges by changing the effective user id to root of an attacker controlled process. Alternatively an attacker could also add or alter kernel code in memory that is commonly referred to as a rootkit. IV. DETECTION Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X 10.5.2 and earlier is considered vulnerable to this issue. V. WORKAROUND iDefense is currently unaware of any workaround for this issue. VI. VENDOR RESPONSE Apple Inc. has released a patch which addresses this issue. For more information, consult their advisory at the following URL: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3549 VII. CVE INFORMATION The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the name CVE-2008-1517 to this issue. This is a candidate for inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org/), which standardizes names for security problems. VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE 03/19/2008 - Initial Contact 03/31/2009 - Attribution Request 04/01/2009 - Attribution Sent 04/01/2009 - CVE Requested 05/12/2009 - Coordinated Public Disclosure IX. CREDIT This vulnerability was reported to iDefense by Neil Kettle (mu-b) of www.digit-labs.org. Get paid for vulnerability research http://labs.idefense.com/methodology/vulnerability/vcp.php Free tools, research and upcoming events http://labs.idefense.com/ X. LEGAL NOTICES Copyright © 2009 iDefense, Inc. Permission is granted for the redistribution of this alert electronically. It may not be edited in any way without the express written consent of iDefense. If you wish to reprint the whole or any part of this alert in any other medium other than electronically, please e-mail customerservice@idefense.com for permission. Disclaimer: The information in the advisory is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing based on currently available information. Use of the information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are no warranties with regard to this information. Neither the author nor the publisher accepts any liability for any direct, indirect, or consequential loss or damage arising from use of, or reliance on, this information. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFKDDt8bjs6HoxIfBkRAvXGAJ95Kgxxt6ovkw8gM387yynMaltRGQCgmW9w zBM997tpgIxs1x/LoVZQMIQ= =C4Kw -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----