CVE-2015-7016 in Mac OS X
Summary
by MITRE
The MCX Application Restrictions component in Apple OS X before 10.11.1, when Managed Configuration is enabled, mishandles provisioning profiles, which allows attackers to bypass intended entitlement restrictions and gain privileges via a crafted developer-signed app.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/21/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-7016 resides within the MCX Application Restrictions component of Apple macOS operating systems prior to version 10.11.1. This flaw specifically manifests when Managed Configuration is enabled, creating a critical security gap that undermines the intended access controls and privilege management mechanisms. The issue stems from improper handling of provisioning profiles, which are digital certificates that define the capabilities and permissions available to applications on iOS and macOS platforms.
The technical flaw involves a misconfiguration in how the system processes and validates provisioning profiles when Managed Configuration is active. Provisioning profiles typically contain entitlements that define what resources and capabilities an application can access, including system-level privileges and restricted APIs. When this vulnerability is exploited, attackers can craft specially designed developer-signed applications that appear legitimate to the system's validation mechanisms yet contain modified entitlements that bypass the intended restrictions. This represents a fundamental failure in the entitlement validation process that should occur during the provisioning profile verification phase.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it allows attackers to escalate privileges and gain unauthorized access to restricted system resources. An attacker with the ability to deploy a crafted application could potentially execute code with elevated privileges, access sensitive system data, or manipulate system configurations that should be restricted to administrators or system processes. The vulnerability particularly affects environments where Apple's Managed Client (MCX) is used for enterprise configuration management, as this component is designed to enforce security policies and application restrictions across multiple devices. This creates a significant risk for organizations that rely on macOS for business-critical operations and use managed configuration to maintain security controls.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-264, which addresses permissions, privileges, and access controls, specifically focusing on improper access control mechanisms that allow privilege escalation. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to privilege escalation techniques and potentially to the use of valid accounts for execution purposes, as the attacker can leverage legitimate developer-signed applications to bypass system restrictions. The flaw also relates to the broader category of application sandboxing bypasses and represents a failure in the code signing and entitlement validation process that Apple employs to secure its operating system.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including updating to macOS 10.11.1 or later versions where this vulnerability has been patched, reviewing existing managed configuration policies to ensure proper entitlement restrictions are in place, and monitoring for unauthorized application deployments. System administrators should also consider implementing additional security controls such as application whitelisting, enhanced code signing verification, and regular security audits of managed configurations. The patch released by Apple addresses the core issue by correcting the provisioning profile validation logic and ensuring that entitlement restrictions are properly enforced regardless of the Managed Configuration state.