CVE-2017-13852 in watchOS
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in certain Apple products. iOS before 11.1 is affected. macOS before 10.13.1 is affected. tvOS before 11.1 is affected. watchOS before 4.1 is affected. The issue involves the "Kernel" component. It allows attackers to monitor arbitrary apps via a crafted app that accesses process information at a high rate.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/10/2024
This vulnerability resides within the kernel component of affected Apple operating systems, representing a significant security flaw that enables unauthorized surveillance capabilities. The issue affects multiple Apple platforms including iOS versions prior to 11.1, macOS versions before 10.13.1, tvOS versions before 11.1, and watchOS versions before 4.1. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of process information access within the kernel, creating a pathway for malicious applications to monitor arbitrary applications through excessive and rapid process information queries. This weakness allows attackers to craft specific applications that can repeatedly access and gather process data from other running applications, effectively enabling covert surveillance operations without user consent or knowledge.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability leverages race conditions and insufficient access controls within the kernel's process information subsystem. When a crafted application accesses process information at a high rate, the kernel fails to properly validate or limit these requests, creating an opportunity for attackers to extract sensitive data from other applications running on the system. This behavior violates fundamental security principles of process isolation and privilege separation, as the malicious application can bypass normal security boundaries to observe activities of other processes. The flaw operates at the kernel level, making it particularly dangerous since kernel-level access provides the highest privileges and can bypass most user-space security measures.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a severe threat to user privacy and system security, as it enables persistent surveillance capabilities that can remain undetected for extended periods. Attackers can utilize this vulnerability to monitor sensitive applications such as messaging services, banking applications, or any software handling confidential information. The high-rate access pattern makes detection challenging since the malicious behavior can be disguised as normal system activity, and the continuous monitoring capability allows for comprehensive data collection over time. This vulnerability directly impacts the confidentiality and integrity of the operating system, potentially enabling advanced persistent threats to gather intelligence without alerting users or system administrators to the compromise.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control in software systems, and represents a classic example of privilege escalation through kernel-level flaws. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving process discovery and credential access, allowing adversaries to gather information about running processes and potentially extract sensitive data from other applications. The flaw also relates to privilege abuse and kernel exploitation techniques that have been documented in various threat actor campaigns. Organizations should immediately update to the patched versions of affected operating systems, as the vulnerability represents a critical risk that can be exploited remotely or through malicious applications installed on devices. Additionally, network monitoring and application behavior analysis should be implemented to detect potential exploitation attempts, though the stealthy nature of this vulnerability makes detection particularly challenging without proper system-level monitoring capabilities.