Apple’s New OS Has Severe Security Flaw
MacOS Mojave shipped with a bug that allows unauthorized access to a user’s private data.
- By Jordan Lutke
- Sep 27, 2018
Apple’s new version of macOS, chock full of new features, also appears to feature a bug that makes users’ private data vulnerable. This bug, found by security researcher Patrick Wardle, allows simple bypass programs to circumvent the computer’s privacy access controls — no permission needed.
In a post to Twitter, Wardle showcased his hack, alongside announcing he had found a day-zero vulnerability in the operating system. In the short video, he runs his bypass program “breakMojave” and proceeds to make good on the program’s name, using it to locate the user’s address book and copy the contents to his desktop.
Wardle called the vulnerability a “trivial, albeit 100% reliable flaw in their implementation.”
Apple addressed a number of security flaws with Mojave’s release, including vulnerabilities in Bluetooth and the application firewall. However, this new flaw, found hours before the OS was released to the public, has not been addressed yet at time of writing. No technical details were released alongside the announcement, to prevent hackers with less benevolent intentions from repeating his processes.
Wardle, who has worked at NASA and the NSA in the past, now works finding MacOS security flaws at Digita Security, of which he is a co-founder.
About the Author
Jordan Lutke is an intern with 1105 Media.