CVE-2016-1718 in Mac OS X
Summary
by MITRE
The IOAcceleratorFamily2 interface in IOAcceleratorFamily in Apple OS X before 10.11.3 allows local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/03/2022
The IOAcceleratorFamily2 interface in Apple's operating system represents a critical kernel-level component designed to accelerate graphics and compute operations through hardware acceleration. This interface serves as a bridge between user-space applications and kernel-space drivers, enabling efficient processing of graphics operations, video decoding, and parallel computing tasks. The vulnerability resides within this family of kernel extensions that manage hardware acceleration capabilities in macOS versions prior to 10.11.3, making it a prime target for privilege escalation attacks that could compromise the entire operating system security model.
The technical flaw in CVE-2016-1718 manifests as unspecified vectors that lead to memory corruption within the IOAcceleratorFamily2 interface implementation. This memory corruption vulnerability occurs at the kernel level where input validation and memory management routines fail to properly handle malformed or maliciously crafted data structures. The vulnerability allows local attackers to exploit memory corruption issues that could result in arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges, effectively bypassing the operating system's security boundaries. The unspecified nature of the vectors suggests that multiple attack surfaces within the interface could be leveraged to achieve the same memory corruption outcome, making the vulnerability particularly dangerous as it may be exploitable through various code paths.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation to include potential system instability and complete compromise of the affected macOS environment. Local users with minimal privileges could leverage this vulnerability to execute code with kernel-level permissions, enabling them to bypass security mechanisms such as System Integrity Protection, access protected memory regions, and manipulate critical system components. The memory corruption aspect also presents a risk of denial of service conditions where system stability could be compromised through heap corruption or stack overflow conditions that crash the kernel or cause unpredictable behavior in the graphics subsystem. This vulnerability directly undermines the security architecture of macOS by creating an attack vector that bypasses traditional user-space security boundaries and operates at the kernel level.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2016-1718 primarily focus on applying the official security patches released by Apple through macOS updates. System administrators should prioritize updating affected systems to macOS 10.11.3 or later versions that contain the necessary fixes for the IOAcceleratorFamily2 interface. Additionally, implementing monitoring solutions to detect anomalous kernel behavior and memory access patterns can help identify potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121, which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions, and may also relate to CWE-122 for heap-based buffer overflows, both of which are common in kernel-level memory management flaws. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving privilege escalation and defense evasion, as attackers could use it to establish persistent kernel-level access and potentially hide their activities from standard security monitoring tools. Organizations should also consider implementing additional security controls such as kernel extension whitelisting and enhanced system integrity monitoring to reduce the risk of exploitation in environments where immediate patching is not feasible.