TippingPoint Zero Day Initiative
 

Apple Mac OS X libsecurity_cdsa_plugin Malloc Integer Truncation Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ZDI-12-137: August 17th, 2012

CVE ID

CVSS Score

Affected Vendors

Affected Products

Vulnerability Details


This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable installations of Apple Mac OSX. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability.

The flaw exists within the libsecurity_cdsa_plugin which implements routines defined in libsecurity_cssm. The library defines an allocation routine as having an argument type uint32. The implemented methods in the cdsa_plugin accept parameter having type size_t, this value is truncated from 64 bits to 32 bits when being passed to the library routine. This can lead to an underallocated memory region and ultimately a write out of bounds. A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code under the context of the process.

Vendor Response

Apple has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details can be found at:

Disclosure Timeline

    2011-11-29 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
    2012-08-17 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

This vulnerability was discovered by:
    aazubel