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PrivateVPN for MacOS

Root Privilege Escalation | XPC path Parameter

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 path string from the corresponding XPC message. This string is supposed to point to the PrivateVPN’s internal openvpn binary. If a new connection has not already been established, an attacker can send the XPC service a malicious XPC message with the path string pointing at a binary that he or she controls. This results in execution of arbitrary code as the root user.

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Vendor Response

Vendor will release update.

Disclosure Timeline

  • Vendor disclosure

  • Vendor response

  • VerSprite responsed to vendor with instructions for resolving vulnerabilies in vendor software.

  • Vendor released update

  • Vendor response and follow up

  • Vendor submitted update

  • VerSprite confirmed vulnerability remains.

  • Vendor disclosure and followup

  • Vendor notified of advisory release