CVE-2017-6985 in macOS
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in certain Apple products. macOS before 10.12.5 is affected. The issue involves the "NVIDIA Graphics Drivers" component. It allows attackers to execute arbitrary code in a privileged context or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted app.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/02/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-6985 represents a critical security flaw within Apple's macOS operating system affecting versions prior to 10.12.5. This weakness specifically targets the NVIDIA Graphics Drivers component, which serves as a crucial interface between the operating system and graphics processing hardware. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and memory management within the graphics driver framework, creating an exploitable condition that can be leveraged by malicious actors to gain elevated privileges or disrupt system operations.
The technical nature of this vulnerability falls under the category of memory corruption, which is classified as CWE-125 in the Common Weakness Enumeration system. Attackers can craft malicious applications that, when executed on affected systems, trigger buffer overflow conditions or other memory manipulation errors within the NVIDIA graphics driver code. These memory corruption issues occur when the driver fails to properly validate input data from applications, allowing crafted payloads to overwrite critical memory segments or execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges. The vulnerability specifically enables attackers to operate within a privileged execution context, bypassing normal user-level restrictions that typically protect system resources and kernel memory spaces.
The operational impact of CVE-2017-6985 extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it can also result in system instability and denial of service conditions. When exploited successfully, the vulnerability allows attackers to cause system crashes, application failures, or complete system hangs that require manual intervention to resolve. This represents a significant threat to enterprise environments where macOS systems serve as critical infrastructure components, as attackers could potentially disrupt business operations or gain unauthorized access to sensitive data. The vulnerability's exploitation capability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1068, which describes the use of local privilege escalation to gain elevated system access through legitimate system tools and processes.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement mitigation strategies focusing on system updates and monitoring. The primary remediation involves upgrading to macOS version 10.12.5 or later, which includes patches specifically addressing the memory corruption issues within the NVIDIA graphics driver component. Security teams should also implement monitoring solutions to detect suspicious application execution patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, particularly focusing on applications that interact with graphics processing or system memory management functions. Additional protective measures include implementing application whitelisting policies to restrict execution of untrusted software and conducting regular security assessments of graphics driver configurations to ensure proper patch management and system hardening practices are maintained.