Pierluigi Paganini in Breaking NewsHacking

A flaw in macOS High Sierra allows to unlock the App Store Preferences without password

Security expert discovered a new vulnerability in macOS High Sierra that could be exploited by users logged as admins to unlock the AppStore Preferences in System Preferences by providing any password.

Security expert discovered a new vulnerability in macOS High Sierra that could be exploited by users logged as admins to unlock the AppStore Preferences in System Preferences by providing any password.

The vulnerability was reported by Eric Holtam and affects the latest version macOS 10.13.2. The issue doesn’t affect non-admin accounts that must provide correct credentials to unlock the AppStore Preferences.

The steps to reproduce the issue and grants access to change the AppStore preferences are:

Log in as a local admin;
Open App Store Prefpane from the System Preferences;
Lock the padlock if it is already unlocked;
Click the lock to unlock it;
Enter any bogus password;

Holtam highlighted that the issue doesn’t affect other system preferences panel (i.e. system preferences).

The flaw has a limited impact because it can only be triggered by admins, anyway, anyone with a physical access to a machine that was left unattended by a user logged as admins can exploit the vulnerability.

Apple already issued a security patch in the latest beta version of macOS High Sierra (10.13.3) and the problem will be addressed in a future update for stable versions.

In November, an authentication bypass issue was publicly disclosed via Twitter by the developer Lemi Orhan Ergan. The flaw in macOS High Sierra allowed gaining root access to a machine with no password.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – macOS High Sierra, hacking)

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Next Read: Security issue in Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT) allows to gain full remote access to corporate devices »

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Pierluigi Paganini: Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.