XcodesOrg / XcodesOrg/XcodesApp

Security Risk: Arbitrary Download

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#734 1 comment 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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bug
Dominant language
Swift
Stars
8.6k
Forks
387
Avg merge
6d 7h
Merged PRs (30d)
3

Description

Describe the bug
I haven't created a proof-of-concept for the bug yet, but looking at some files, it appears that any unsandboxed application is able to modify the json that Xcodes saves offline to load on launch. They could then change the download url to be a modified Xcode or something else entirely allowing Xcodes to load malware onto the system without a user's knowledge.

I would have to look a lot deeper, but I wonder if a malformed file could also lead to privilege escalation via the helper tool.

@MattKiazyk I don't want to scare anyone or publish too many details publicly without a fix. How should we proceed? Am I wrong? Should I make a proof of concept for the downloading update?

Contributor guide

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

The issue names no files or tests. Start by locating the offline JSON loading and download/update paths, then verify whether an unsandboxed application can alter the saved URL and whether the helper tool changes the impact; done means the risk is confirmed or disproven and a remediation scope is agreed.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
macos, swift
Domain
desktop, security
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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