Pro tip: You can log into macOS High Sierra as root with no password
Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:47 am
I keep having people tell me how much better and more secure apple is than everything else and how they do not need all the security measures that all the other groups need.
Um. You might want to rethink that logic.
This huge hole was found recently. Who knows how many others there are.
Keep in mind you not only have hackers trying to get into systems but also most governments that want easy access to the systems. It would not surprise me a bit if at some point it is discovered that a government mole was 'helping' with the code to sneak this 'flaw' in. Since it does seem like one has to do a little 'dance' to get the admin door to open.
Copied from:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/2 ... gh_sierra/
Pro tip: You can log into macOS High Sierra as root with no password
Apple, this is Windows 95 bad – but there is a workaround to kill the bug
By Shaun Nichols
28 Nov 2017
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 can be 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, too.
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, nor allow remote desktop access, until you can fix the problem.
And while obviously this situation is not the end of the world – it's certainly far from a true 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 alerted the wider world to the flaw via Twitter in the past hour or so. The security hole was also quietly discussed on Apple's developer forums two weeks ago, but virtually no one seemed to notice.
Um. You might want to rethink that logic.
This huge hole was found recently. Who knows how many others there are.
Keep in mind you not only have hackers trying to get into systems but also most governments that want easy access to the systems. It would not surprise me a bit if at some point it is discovered that a government mole was 'helping' with the code to sneak this 'flaw' in. Since it does seem like one has to do a little 'dance' to get the admin door to open.
Copied from:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/2 ... gh_sierra/
Pro tip: You can log into macOS High Sierra as root with no password
Apple, this is Windows 95 bad – but there is a workaround to kill the bug
By Shaun Nichols
28 Nov 2017
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 can be 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, too.
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, nor allow remote desktop access, until you can fix the problem.
And while obviously this situation is not the end of the world – it's certainly far from a true 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 alerted the wider world to the flaw via Twitter in the past hour or so. The security hole was also quietly discussed on Apple's developer forums two weeks ago, but virtually no one seemed to notice.