[Full-disclosure] FW: Apple Lion OS Suffers From A Major Security Issue

["Thor (Hammer of God)" <thor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI

From: Raging Hagis
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 7:21 AM
To: Thor (Hammer of God)
Subject: Apple Lion OS Suffers From A Major Security Issue

Apple’s Lion OS X stores passwords insecurely, with the updated OS appearing to 
be more vulnerable than its previous Snow Leopard and Leopard versions, 
according to a BetaNews report.


Apple's OS X passwords can only be changed by a computer's administrator. The 
OS encrypts them and then stores them as "shadow files" on the disk drive in 
what should be a secure location.

Defence in Depth security blog identified the running issue in 2009, which was 
evident in versions 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6, and blogged that the issue is still 
prevalent in Lion.

However it's even easier to steal computer passwords in Lion.

In previous versions of OS X, administrator privileges were needed to make the 
hack work. In Lion, any user can search the directory for the hash file, which 
is the file needed to decode the encryption.

"It appears in the redesign of OS X Lion's authentication scheme a critical 
step has been overlooked," Defence in Depth's Patrick Dunstan wrote.

Dunstan recognised that users without admin clearance won't be able to access 
the hash file directory, but it isn't needed when the hash data is accessible 
from directory services.

The issue would be much worse if the data could be accessed remotely, with 
hackers easily stealing catalogues of security passwords. Still, the fact the 
passwords are accessible locally is a big issue for Apple's OS, considering the 
security prone software is meant to be "the world's most advanced desktop 
operating system" according to Apple.

In the meantime, Mac users should disable all guest accounts and automatic 
login, so the computer requires an admin password at each start up.

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