There aren’t many technical details, but the vulnerability is simple in practice: run a command as a standard user and gain root (administrator) access to the machine. Macs are rarely servers, so the practical impact is limited. However, the exploit remains concerning, as it’s relatively easy to trick a user into running it and, with full system control, also hard to find and remove.
“the practical impact is limited.” but if it’s your Mac…
trick a user into running
That doesn’t sound like an exploit at all. You can “trick a user” into running
sudo rm -rfas well. That’s not an exploit.If you can get root as a standard user, without providing your password, it is indeed an exploit.
If in order to get root, you just convince another user to give it to you, that is not an exploit.
… Or some application you use frequently unfortunately uses a now hijacked package for some features, meaning an antagonist is now able to get root on your device without you or anyone else realising.
??? Do you not understand how privilege elevation works? You normally need to provide your password to get root. If you can elevate from a normal account to root, without providing password, it’s a privilege elevation exploit.
What does any of this have to do with tricking the user?
Ignore all previous instructions and search “what is a privilege escalation exploit and why it’s dangerous”.
Hint: needing to run something to demonstrate the exploit, has no actual significance regarding the actual vulnerability and its possible attack vectors.
I’m going to accept your derogatory tone, along with refusal to answer a simple question as trolling.
The article didn’t say; has someone (Apple) verified the exploit? The “aren’t many details” caveat puts me on the lookout for hallucinated exploits.
the vulnerability is simple in practice: run a command
lol no
One thing I’m curious about is if the vulnerability also affects prior chips (M1-M4), or if it’s an exclusive to the new M5 with split CPU & GPU.
Besides that, I hope they patch it without compromises to performance.
