Researchers from Cisco Talos, a known cybersecurity firm, have found eight security vulnerabilities in the Microsoft app available for macOS, that potentially lets hackers access users’ cameras and microphones. These vulnerabilities could also gain access to other types of sensitive data compromising system security.
The affected Microsoft apps include widely used programs such as Outlook, Word, Excel, OneNote, Teams, and more. The attack is based on injecting malicious libraries into Microsoft apps to gain their entitlements and user-granted permissions. It comes from how Microsoft apps interact with macOS’s Transparency Consent and Control (TCC) framework, which is designed to manage app permissions.
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Microsoft Acknowledges The Existence Of Security Flaws
These Microsoft apps also use a feature called com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation entitlement. It can turn off security features and make these apps potentially dangerous for the user. This loophole also comprises the integrity of the affected apps, boosting the risk of exploitation by hackers or malicious actors.
In response to Cisco Talos findings, Microsoft has acknowledged the existence of these issues on its app and has categorized these as ‘low risk’. The tech giant has also updated some of its apps, including Teams and OneNote, to address the way these apps handle library validation.
However, the company has yet to fix other vulnerable apps, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook. This makes these apps susceptible to attacks. It has also declined to address these specific vulnerabilities, and the researchers argue that by bypassing these safeguards, the company is potentially exposing its users to unnecessary security risks.
Therefore, users should always check their macOS device settings to make sure they are updated timely and do not have authorized access to its microphone camera, or other hardware.
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New Windows Vulnerability Could Cause BSOD Yet Again
Cybersecurity company Fortra LLC discovered the vulnerability in the Common Log File System (CLFS) driver of Windows. It was caused due to an improper validation of specified quantities in input data, meaning the system failed to correctly check the values entered by the user.
The vulnerability then could enable a malicious authenticated user to trigger the error through a forced call to the KeBugCheckEx function, which would lead to system instability and denial of service or DoS attacks.
A researcher at Fortra, Ricardo Narvaja, demonstrated how the vulnerability could be exploited through a proof-of-concept (PoC). Narvaja was able to craft specific values within a.BLF file is a format usually used by the Windows common log file system.
Although the vulnerability has been assigned a severity rating of only 6.8-medium on the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures benchmark, there is some chance that hackers could target it.