Skip to main content

Plugins for Popular Text Editors Could Help Hackers Gain Elevated Privileges


Whether you're a developer, designer or a writer, a good text editor always help you save time and make you work more efficiently.

For example, I use Sublime a lot while programming because it includes some useful tools like 'syntax highlighting' and 'autocomplete' that every advanced text editor should have.

Moreover, these advanced text editors also offer users extensibility, allowing users to install and run third-party plugins to extend the editor's functionality and most importantly its scope.

However, it's a known fact that third-party plugins always pose a significant risk of hacking, whether it's about WordPress plugins or Windows' extensions for Chrome, Firefox or Photoshop.

SafeBreach researcher Dor Azouri analyzed several popular extensible text editors for Unix and Linux systems, including Sublime, Vim, Emacs, Gedit, and pico/nano, and found that except for pico/nano, all of them are vulnerable to a critical privilege escalation flaw that could be exploited by attackers to run malicious code on a victims’ machines.
"This method succeeds regardless of the file being opened in the editor, so even limitations commonly applied on sudo commands might not protect from it," the paper reads [pdf]
"Technical users will occasionally need to edit root-owned files, and for that purpose they will open their editor with elevated privileges, using ‘sudo.’ There are many valid reasons to elevate the privileges of an editor."
The issue resides in the way these text editors load plugins. According to the researcher, there's inadequate separation of regular and elevated modes when loading plugins for these editors.

Their folder permissions integrity is not maintained correctly, which opens the door for attackers with regular user permissions to elevate their privileges and execute arbitrary code on the user's machine.

A simple malvertising campaign could allow attackers spread malicious extension for vulnerable text editors, enabling them to run malicious code with elevated privileges, install malware and remotely take full control of targeted computers.

Azouri suggests Unix users can use an open-source host-based intrusion detection system, called OSSEC, to actively monitoring system activity, files integrity, logs, and processes.

Users should avoid loading 3rd-party plugins when the editor is elevated and also deny write permissions for non-elevated users.

Azouri advised developers of text editors to change the folders and file permission models to complete the separation between regular and elevated modes and if possible, provide a manual interface for users to approve the elevated loading of plugins.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:
Download 10 Best Android Hacking Apps for Android Mobile
Labels:
Location: India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[Guide] How to Protect Your Devices Against Meltdown and Spectre Attacks

Recently uncovered two huge processor vulnerabilities called Meltdown and Spectre have taken the whole world by storm, while vendors are rushing out to patch the vulnerabilities in its products. The issues apply to all modern processors and affect nearly all operating systems (Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, macOS, FreeBSD, and more), smartphones and other computing devices made in the past 20 years. What are Spectre and Meltdown? We have explained both, Meltdown (CVE-2017-5754) and Spectre (CVE-2017-5753, CVE-2017-5715), exploitation techniques in our previous article. In short, Spectre and Meltdown are the names of security vulnerabilities found in many processors from Intel, ARM and AMD that could allow attackers to steal your passwords, encryption keys and other private information. Both attacks abuse 'speculative execution' to access privileged memory—including those allocated for the kernel—from a low privileged user process like a malicious app running...
Post a Comment
Read more

iOS 11.3 coming this spring with battery and performance settings, ARKit 1.5, new Animoji

In a sign that Apple will continue to update iOS regularly instead of withholding features for its next major point-zero release, Apple on Wednesday revealed new features coming to an iOS 11.3 update this spring, including the ability to toggle the power management feature for iPhone models with aging batteries. Apple will implement new battery health information and the ability to customize power settings after it was revealed that the company  throttles CPU performance on older devices  where the battery is deteriorating. Apple's throttling is done to prevent random shutdowns of the device and ensure smooth operation, but some customers took offense to the fact that the slowdowns were occurring without transparency to the user. In a press release issued on Wednesday, Apple said that the iOS 11.3 update this fall will show battery health, and recommend to users if their battery needs to be serviced. The capabilities will be available for iPhone 6 and later. Users will...
Post a Comment
Read more

Unlocked phones vs. locked phones: Why you should care

Should you get an unlocked phone? The US wireless market is more competitive than ever, which is great news for consumers who have lots of choices when it comes choosing a service provider. But one barrier still exists when trying to switch carriers: the locked smartphone. The end of wireless contracts marked a watershed trend for consumers because it finally opened the door for them to more easily shop around for alternative wireless carriers. But the software locks that carriers put on phones restricting its use on other networks still prevent many consumers from having total freedom when it comes to choosing a provider. Now Verizon, the only wireless carrier that sold its phones unlocked out of the box, is reversing course. The company  said earlier this week  it would begin locking the phones it sells to consumers for an undetermined period of time, which will prevent them from using a SIM card from another carrier. But Verizon promised it would eventually ...
Post a Comment
Read more