A tool for exploiting an unpatched security hole in Mac OS X systems has been developed and until earlier today was being distributed through an online forum that caters to Mac hackers, Security Fix has learned.
The exploit tool, labeled "Applescript Trojan horse template" by hackers at Macshadows.com, appears to be a collective and ongoing effort to create a package of malicious software that capitalizes on the ARDagent security hole first publicized last week. The vulnerability essentially allows any program to run on a Mac user's machine without first prompting the user to enter his or her user name and password.
Currently, the Macshadows user forum appears to have been wiped clean, both from the Macshadows.com Web site and from Google's cache. However, Security Fix obtained screen shots of forum postings from the code's authors, which are sprinkled throughout this blog entry. It appears that development of this malware started back in mid-May.
Security Fix also obtained a copy of the Trojan horse template from an anti-virus industry expert who asked to remain anonymous. An analysis of the code by noted security researcher Dino Dai Zovi indicates that it is designed to be bundled with any downloadable Mac program, with the aim of turning an otherwise legitimate program into an exploit toolkit capable of handing control of the system to attackers.
"This could be bundled with any arbitrary application very easily," Dai Zovi said of the Trojan template. "Most people assume that if something is going to do something dangerous, that it will ask you for your password first, but this won't."
Dai Zovi said the Trojan tries two different exploits to install itself without having to prompt the user for his or her system credentials. One exploit is the aforementioned ARDagent attack; the other is for a privilege escalation vulnerability that Apple patched in 2006. (As an interesting aside, Dai Zovi himself reported that latter vulnerability to Apple back in 2006, only to later learn that exploit code for that same vulnerability had been publicly posted online prior to Apple issuing a patch for the flaw).
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