August 20, 2024 at 08:24AM
Cisco discovered vulnerabilities in multiple Microsoft applications for macOS, including Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint, OneNote, Excel, and Word. Attackers could exploit these flaws to bypass system permissions, allowing unauthorized activities such as sending emails, recording audio or video, and accessing sensitive information. Microsoft acknowledges the bugs but considers them low risk, while Cisco rates them as high severity. Microsoft has updated Teams and OneNote but not the other affected applications. Cisco urges users to be cautious due to the potential risks associated with these vulnerabilities.
Based on the meeting notes, there are several key takeaways:
– Vulnerabilities in multiple Microsoft applications for macOS have been identified by Cisco, allowing attackers to bypass system permissions and potentially perform various malicious actions.
– Cisco has assigned a ‘high severity’ rating to all the identified vulnerabilities, arguing that they enable attackers to bypass macOS’s policies and gain unauthorized access to sensitive information. Microsoft, however, considers the vulnerabilities low-risk and, in some cases, has chosen not to address the issues.
– The vulnerabilities allow attackers to inject unsigned libraries in Microsoft’s applications for macOS, potentially elevating privileges and exploiting app permissions and entitlements.
– Specifically, Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint, OneNote, Excel, and Word are affected, allowing actions such as sending emails without user knowledge, recording audio or video, taking photos without user interaction, and extracting keychain entries belonging to a specific access group.
– Microsoft has updated the Teams apps and OneNote for macOS, removing the risky entitlement from them, but the other four applications remain vulnerable according to Cisco.
Overall, it’s important to recognize the severity of these vulnerabilities and take appropriate actions to address and mitigate the risks posed to system security and user privacy.