Home | Research | Resources | Advisories | PrivateVPN for MacOS
Root Privilege Escalation | XPC config
CVE ID
CVE-2018-7716
VENDOR
PrivateVPN
PRODUCT
PrivateVPN
Product version
< 2.0.31
Vulnerability Details
PrivateVPN for MacOS suffers from a root privilege escalation vulnerability with its com.privat.vpn.helper privileged
helper tool. This privileged helper tool implements an XPC service that allows arbitrary installed applications to connect and send messages. The XPC service extracts the config string from the corresponding XPC message. This string is supposed to point to an internal openvpn configuration file. If a new connection has not already been established, an attacker can send the XPC service a malicious XPC message with the config string pointing at an openvpn configuration file that he or she controls. In the configuration file, an attacker can specify a dynamic library plugin that should run for every new VPN connection. This plugin will execute code in the context of the root user.
Learn More →
Vendor response
Vendor will release update.
Disclosure timeline
02-21-2018 - Vendor disclosure 02-21-2018 - Vendor response 02-21-2018 - VerSprite responded to vendor with instructions for resolving vulnerabilities in vendor software. 02-23-2018 - Vendor released update 02-23-2018 - Vendor response and follow up 02-24-2018 - Vendor submitted update 02-26-2018 - VerSprite confirmed vulnerability remains. 02-26-2018 - Vendor disclosure and followup 03-05-2018 - Vendor notified of advisory release