Apple Mac OS X vulnerable to privilege escalation when using Directory Services

Overview

A vulnerability in Mac OS X may permit a local authenticated user with physical access to the machine to gain elevated privileges.

Description

Mac OS X permits the remote authentication of users via directory sevices lookups. When a user logs in to a machine configured to use the Directory Services to provide authentication, it is possible to disconnect the machine’s network connection and potentially be logged in with a Finder running as root. This gives the user full root permissions on the machine. Applications started in the session will also run as root.

This vulnerability affects Mac OS X 10.3 through 10.3.3.

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Impact

A local authenticated user with physical access to the machine may be able to gain root privileges to the system.

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Solution

Apple has resolved this issue in Mac OS X 10.3.4. A free upgrade is available at <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/&gt;.

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Vendor Information

174790

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Apple Computer Inc. __ Affected

Updated: June 21, 2004

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

The issue reported in Vulnerability Note VU#174790 affects Mac OS X versions 10.3 through 10.3.3. The issue has been fixed in Mac OS X 10.3.4 which is available as a free upgrade via <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/&gt;

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us [email](<mailto:[email protected]?Subject=VU%23174790 Feedback>).

CVSS Metrics

Group	Score	Vector
Base
Temporal
Environmental

References

• <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798&gt;
• <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/&gt;
• <http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/10432&gt;
• <http://securitytracker.com/alerts/2004/May/1010330.html&gt;

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Jim Foraker for reporting this vulnerability.

This document was written by Jason A Rafail.

Other Information

CVE IDs:	CVE-2004-0514
Severity Metric:	0.24 Date Public: