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Job(s) Bless Us! Privileged Operations on macOS

Job(s) Bless Us! Privileged Operations on macOS

Operation system's security depends a lot on the way developers handle privileged operations. Is it easy to make a mistake? Is the recommended way actually better than a deprecated API?

Recently, we gained insight into these questions during our company's bug bounty program, which led to some surprising conclusions.

vashchenko

March 13, 2020
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  1. Agenda Intro to privileged operations API on macOS First CleanMyMac's

    security issue, reported by CleanMyMac on Comparison of privileged operations implementation on and Summary & Takeaways
  2. Signing requirements Client Privileged Helper Client has requirements for Helper(s)

    Helper has requirements for Client(s) OS performs validation of the requirements ONLY on install & update of the Helper NO validation is performed on establishing XPC connection Intro
  3. SMJobBless() 1. Client has the Privileged Helper executable in the

    bundle 2. Signing requirements are met • Both client and Helper are signed • Privileged Helper has a plist file for launchd embedded into __TEXT section • Privileged Helper has Info.plist embedded • Client has signing requirements listed in its Info.plist Intro
  4. SMJobBless() 5. OS validates code signing requirements in client and

    helper’s Info.plist and copies the executable from the bundle to /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools Intro
  5. Stumbled upon Talos’es Zero-Day reports Contacted Talos for details, they

    answer the same day We release a patched update v. 4.2.0 Talos reports insufficient fix We release a patch v. 4.3.0 Tyler Bohan (Talos) delivers a talk at OffenciveCon19 Timeline Talos 0 1
  6. Tyler Bohan: ‘OSX XPC Revisited - 3rd Party Application Flaws’

    at OffensiveCon19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPzhTqwf0bA Talos
  7. Tyler Bohan: ‘OSX XPC Revisited - 3rd Party Application Flaws’

    at OffensiveCon19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPzhTqwf0bA Talos
  8. Timeline March 2018 MacPaw launched a private h1 program for

    our other product Setapp May 2019 CleanMyMac desktop client is added to the scope h1
  9. Client’s requirements Privileged helper’s executable can be replaced with old

    version { Bundle identifier Signing identity (team id) { h1
  10. What’s the fuss about old versions? El Capitan 10.11 Sierra

    10.12 High Sierra 10.13 Mojave 10.14 Catalina 10.15 Hardened Runtime introduced in Mojave: • libraries signing validation == protect from dylib injection • remove get-task-allow from entitlements == protect from attaching with debugger (and other things) h1
  11. Issue #2: steps Preconditions: Privileged Helper is not authorized yet.

    A malicious executable is present on the user’s computer. 1. Download an app version, vulnerable to dylib injection 2. Replace the Privileged Helper executable in the installed app with the vulnerable one 3. User authorizes the Helper 4. Perform a dylib injection into the Helper—it is run as root! h1
  12. What about code signing? Replacing the Privileged Helper in the

    signed bundle doesn’t change anything, because OS validates the signature only when app is quarantined After the first launch no signature validation is performed on Mojave. Time-to-time signature checks were announced in Catalina. h1
  13. Issue #3: steps Preconditions: Privileged Helper is authorized. A malicious

    executable is present on the user’s computer. • Download an old app version, vulnerable to dylib injection • Launch client executable with a dylib injection • Call privileged helper’s methods from the injected code • In our case it leads to LPE to root h1
  14. Issue #3: steps Preconditions: Privileged Helper is authorized. A malicious

    executable is present on the user’s computer. • Download an old app version, vulnerable to dylib injection • Launch client executable with a dylib injection • Call privileged helper’s methods from the injected code • In our case it leads to LPE to root Takeaway: Dylib injection does NOT break the code signature h1
  15. old client versions can connect other apps of the same

    vendor can connect Privileged Helper’s requirements { Signing identity (team id) h1
  16. anyone can impersonate the client due to pid checks logic

    performed by OS Privileged Helper’s code h1
  17. h1

  18. Takeaways for developers 1. Think about security in your project/company.

    A good start is creating a [email protected] email handle. 2. Have one source of truth for Client’s signing requirements and one for Privileged Helper’s, e.g. put them in Preprocessor Macros and use it in: ℹ Info.plist file listener:shouldAcceptNewConnection: 3. In signing requirements check at least for: signing identity bundle identifier #⃣ minimum version 4. In SecCodeCopyGuestWithAttributes use audit token to obtain code reference for signature validation, not the pid 5. In order to be a good citizen remember to unregister the Privileged Helper via launchctl or SMJobRemove API, remove the executable from /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools and the auto generated .plist from /Library/LaunchDaemons Summary
  19. Example set up requirements for Privileged Helper 1. Add User-Defined

    Build Settings: CLIENT_REQUIREMENTS="@\"anchor trusted and certificate leaf [subject.CN] = \\\"$(CLIENT_SIGNING_IDENTITY)\\\" and info[CFBundleShortVersionString] >= \\\"$CLIENT_MIN_VERSION\\\" and identifier \\\"$CLIENT_IDENTIFIER\\\"\"" 2. Use them to create a macro definition Summary
  20. 3. Use your Build Settings in Info.plist client requirements: 4.

    Use the Macro Definition from 2. in code to validate incoming connection: Example set up requirements for Privileged Helper Summary
  21. Summary/Wishlist 1. We need the documentation There is no easily

    available Apple’s documentation about securing XPC connection with Privileged Helpers 2. We need Code Samples Apple’s code samples are not secure 3. Using pid to check the signature of a process is not secure. It should be clearly stated in docs Checks by pid are racy by nature 4. Audit token should not be private It is the most secure way, but it is not available to 3rd party developers 5. There should be some Uninstallation API When the app is being removed, the Helpers are usually forgotten in /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools Summary
  22. Further Reading 1. project-zero ‘Issue 1223: MacOS/iOS userspace entitlement checking

    is racy’ by Ian Beer 2. OffensiveCon19 'OSX XPC Revisited - 3rd Party Application Flaws' by Tyler Bohan 3. Apple Developer Forums 'XPC restricted to processes with the same code signing?' 4. Objective Development ‘The Story Behind CVE-2019-13013’ by Christian from Little Snitch 5. ‘No Privileged Helper Tool Left Behind’ by Erik Berglund Summary
  23. Call to Action If I could ask you to do

    1 thing, let it be: Summary
  24. Call to Action Summary reporting to Apple, that audit tokens

    should be made available for 3rd party developers: If I could ask you to do 1 thing, let it be: