Sep 14 2021

Apple products vulnerable to FORCEDENTRY zero-day attack – patch now!

Category: Zero dayDISC @ 9:41 am

You know what we’re going to say, so we’ll say it right away.

Patch early, patch often.

Canadian privacy and cybersecurity activist group The Citizen Lab just announced a zero-day security hole in Apple’s iPhone, iPad and Macintosh operating systems.

They’ve given the attack the nickname FORCEDENTRY, for rather obvious reasons, though its official designation is CVE-2021-30860.

Citizen Lab has attributed the vulnerability, and the code that exploits it, to controversial device surveillance company NSO Group, already well-known for its so-called Pegasus line of spyware-like products.

According to Citizen Lab, this exploit relies on booby-trapped PDF files, and was spotted in the wild when a Saudi Arabian activist handed over their phone for analysis after suspecting that spyware had somehow been implanted on the device.

The Citizen Lab report coincides with Apple’s own security bulletin HT21807, which credits Citizen Lab for reporting the hole, and says simply:

Processing a maliciously crafted PDF may lead to arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited. […] An integer overflow was addressed with improved input validation.

The problem with integers

The Art of Mac Malware: The Guide to Analyzing Malicious Software

Tags: Apple products, FORCEDENTRY zero-day

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