IPVanish 3.0.11 for macOS suffers from a root privilege escalation vulnerability. The `com.ipvanish.osx.vpnhelper` LaunchDaemon implements an insecure XPC service that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code as the root user. IPVanish uses a third-party library for converting `xpc_object_t` types in to `NSObject` types for sending XPC messages. When IPVanish establishes a new connection, the following XPC message is sent to the `com.ipvanish.osx.vpnhelper` LaunchDaemon. Because the XPC service itself does not validate an incoming connection, any application installed on the operating system can send it XPC messages. In the case of the "connect" message, an attacker could manipulate the `OpenVPNPath` to point at a malicious binary on the system. The `com.ipvanish.osx.vpnhelper` would receive the VPNHelperConnect command, and then execute the malicious binary as the root user.
Publication date: Wed, 18 Apr 2018 02:29:00 +0000