macOS High Sierra Bug Lets Anyone Gain Root Access

 
Hi guys hope you are all keeping well, and if not I am yet again going to drain the brightness from your day. If you own a Mac computer and run the latest version of Apple's operating system, macOS High Sierra, then you need to be extra careful with your computer. Apparently anyone and I mean anyone from your two year old to your grandad can break into your mac device and become a superuser. Yes I said it, a superuser a god of elevated privileges a root to all evil, only the geeks in the room will get that one. So here's the thing Apple are calling this a bug when they should really just come out and say:

 "look guys we turned on root to do some shit, then we kinda forgot to turn it off, and, em, looks like that's the image we used to roll out 1,000s of machines on, our bad.....
PS the iPhone X is great you should go buy one it comes with enhanced features like stealing your key biometrics data for facial recognition so the CIA don't have to." - This may or may not have been a statement made by Apple T&C's apply.

Here's How to Login as Root User Without a Password

If you own a Mac and want to try this exploit, follow these steps from admin or guest account:

• Open System Preferences on the machine.
• Select Users & Groups.
• Click the lock icon to make changes.
• Enter "root" in the username field of a login window.
• Move the cursor into the Password field and hit enter button there few times, leaving it blank.

With that macOS High Sierra logs the unauthorized user in with root privileges, allowing the user to access your Mac as a "superuser" with permission to read and write to system files, including those in other macOS accounts as well.

This flaw can be exploited in several ways, depending on the setup of the targeted Mac. With full-disk encryption disabled, a rogue user can turn on a Mac that's entirely powered down and log in as root by doing the same trick.

At Mac's login screen, an untrusted user can also use the root trick to gain access to a Mac that has FileVault turned on to make unauthorized changes to the Mac System Preferences, like disabling FileVault.

All the untrusted user needs to do is click "Other" at the login screen, and then enter "root" again with no password. However, it is impossible to exploit this vulnerability when a Mac machine is turned on, and the screen is protected with a password.

I suppose there is no point in doing the scary dance without having a solution to hand and just as easy the potential to carry out this exploit the fix is similarly as simple to fix just follow the steps below.

Here's How to Temporarily Fix the macOS High Sierra Bug

To fix the vulnerability, you need to enable the root user with a password. Heres how to do that:

• Open System Preferences and Select Users & Groups
• Click on the lock icon and Enter your administrator name and password there
• Click on "Login Options" and select "Join" at the bottom of the screen
• Select "Open Directory Utility"
• Click on the lock icon to make changes and type your username and password there
• Click "Edit" at the top of the menu bar
• Select "Enable Root User" and set a password for the root user account

This password will prevent the account from being accessed with a blank password.

Just to be on the safer side, you can also disable Guest accounts on your Mac. for this, head on to System Preferences → Users & Groups, select Guest User after entering your admin password, and disable "Allow guests to log in to this computer."

Security Meets Cost

I was recently asked by a small business how could they secure their IT on a budget this made me stop to think about that tricky subject "security meets cost". It is in these terms that a business must be practical, you need to stand back and identify your actual financial loss were a cyber attack or unforeseen event to occur resulting in the loss of data. And to be quite honest if your spending thousands on perimeter controls and don't have anyone in your business who can properly configure, monitor and maintain these devices then your really just throwing money down the drain.

After going through the business I advised them to put in place a number of steps that would go a long way towards protecting them. It must be noted that the business in question did not deal with any payments card information (PCI), personally identifiable information (PII) or personal health information (PHI) if your business is dealing with the above then you will need to put more controls in place.

My plan for the business was pretty simple and I will lay it out below.

1) Education:
This is one of the fundamental roles that small businesses neglect, there are hundreds of services out there that will do training days on different areas in an easy to understand and education manner. If you can train staff to identify Phising, Smishing and other everyday threats then you are starting to win a war on the front line. Education helps get employees to think before opening an attachment or giving out "harmless" information over the phone. For the more adventures small business there are packages available for you to run harmless attacks that contain educational videos when clicked. PhishMe would be one such company that comes to mind in that regard.

2) Backups:
This one is quite simple but often forgotten, with the rise of ransomware every small business should keep daily or weekly backups. These backups should be occasionally tested to ensure that they can restore systems in the event of an emergency such as a ransomware infection.

3) Business Continuity Plan:
 Every business should have one and should test it, you can work on building this up over a period of time but you need to start somewhere. EG. if the building floods are our desktops on the floor? Maybe we should elevate them to mitigate this problem. During this flood do employee have the ability to work from home? Yes we have remote access to the building over our companies VPN.

The above are just suggestions but you get the drift if you start to disect your company and compare it to potential events you might be surprised what you come up with. Fail to prepare then prepare to fail.

4) Virus and Anti- malware protection:
Again this is simple but neglected in many small businesses, buy a good antivirus and anti-malware package and set the updates to times you know your employees wont shut them down eg lunch time or after working hours. A good antivirus and malware solution is like having a security guard in your network throwing out all the bad guys.


5) Enable Bit-locker or the equivalent:
Bit-locker encrypts your disk so if someone breaks in and robs your physical machine in theory bit-locker will keep that information safe, unless of course the thief is Homeland security or the equivalent in which case your data is the least of your worries.

6) Password Policy:
Put in place a robust password policy that includes the rotation of passwords regularly and password history check to prevent the re-use of passwords.

7) Third party checks:
If you are using a third party to store data or to provide remote support ask them to provide you with a list of controls that are in place to protect you from a security point of view. If they tell you they are super secure and you need to trust them get worried because this means they haven't got anything to give you and your cloud solution is some guy with a laptop and 15 housemates that use it to stream illegal movies.

8) Document everything!
You should document all of your procedures and workflows because if one guy has all this information and gets hit by a bus your knowledge is dead. Good documentation is key to smooth transition and helps aid security through clarity.



If you get all the above in order you will have made a decent move towards securing your business at a minimal cost, of course there is plenty of room to do more but the hardest part is always to make a start.

Protect Your PC against CTB-Locker, Locky and TeslaCrypt Ransomware

After dealing with a number of nasty .Locky ransomware cases in the past few weeks I am delighted to announce that Bitdefender has created an anti-ransomware vaccine that blocks the strains CTB-Locker, Locky and TeslaCrypt. This is something that everyone should be downloading ASAP and trust me on this as prevention in this case is much better than paying the fine.
According to data recently published by Fortinet, top ransomware families are CryptoWall, Locky, and TeslaCrypt, while Cryptowall is predominant, Lock is rapidly spreading.



The Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware toolkit was developed by the company years ago to help victims of crypto-ransomware to prevent infections. Some ransomware-decryptors try to exploit encryption flaws in the ransomware implementation to decrypt files or use encryption keys discovered by law enforcement during their activity. These conditions are not easy to match, so Bitdefender is promoting the prevention instead by spreading its anti-ransomware vaccine. So that is enough of me waffling go and download and install the anti- ransomware vaccine HERE.

RANSOMWARE DECRYPTOR:

In the case that you have been hit with ransomware there is still the possibility that you will be able to decrypt the encryption depending on the strain. The National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) of the Netherlands’ police, the Netherlands’ National Prosecutors Office and Kaspersky Lab, have been working together to fight the CoinVault and Bitcryptor ransomware campaigns. In doing so they have released a new decryption application that will automatically decrypt all files for Coinvault and Bitcryptor victims. For more information please see this how-to guide. For TelsaCrypt Cisco have also released a decryption tool however I have not personally used this so I can't comment but if you want to take a look you can find it here.

How to Protect Yourself from Macro-based Malware?

Below is a number of pointer's from The Hacker News on protecting against macro-based malware that may also be of interest.

Step 1: Configure Trusted Location

Since disabling Macros is not a feasible option, especially in an office environment where Macros are designed to simplify the complex task with automation.

So, if your organization relies on Macros, you can move files that use Macros into the company’s DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), also called Trusted Location.

To configure the trusted location, you can navigate via:

User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Microsoft Office XXX 20XX/Application Settings/Security/Trust Center/Trusted Locations

Once configured, the Macros that does not belong to the trusted location would not run in any way, beefing up your system’s security.

Step 2: Block Macros in Office Files that came from the Internet

Microsoft had recently unveiled a novel method by implementing a new tactical security feature to limit the Macro execution attack in MS Office 2016, ultimately preventing your system from hijacking.

The new feature is a group policy setting that lets enterprise administrators to disable macros from running in Office files that come from the Internet.

The new setting is called, "Block macros from running in Office files from the Internet" and can be navigated through the group policy management editor under:

User configuration > Administrative templates > Microsoft Word 2016 > Word Options > Security > Trust Center

It can be configured for each Office application.

By enabling this option, macros that come from the Internet are blocked from running even if you have 'enable all macros' in the Macros Settings.

Moreover, instead of having the option to 'Enable Editing,' you'll receive a notification that macros are blocked from running, as the document comes from an Untrusted Source.

The only way to run that particular Office file is to save it to a trusted location, allowing macros to run.