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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.

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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

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