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macOS Office Sandbox Bypasses ​

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Word Sandbox bypass via Launch Agents ​

The application uses a custom Sandbox using the entitlement com.apple.security.temporary-exception.sbpl and this custom sandbox allows to write files anywhere as long as the filename started with ~$: (require-any (require-all (vnode-type REGULAR-FILE) (regex #"(^|/)~$[^/]+$")))

Therefore, escaping was as easy as writing a plist LaunchAgent in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/~$escape.plist.

Check the original report here.

Word Sandbox bypass via Login Items and zip ​

Remember that from the first escape, Word can write arbitrary files whose name start with ~$ although after the patch of the previous vuln it wasn't possible to write in /Library/Application Scripts or in /Library/LaunchAgents.

It was discovered that from within the sandbox it's possible to create a Login Item (apps that will be executed when the user logs in). However, these apps won't execute unless they are notarized and it's not possible to add args (so you cannot just run a reverse shell using bash).

From the previous Sandbox bypass, Microsoft disabled the option to write files in ~/Library/LaunchAgents. However, it was discovered that if you put a zip file as a Login Item the Archive Utility will just unzip it on its current location. So, because by default the folder LaunchAgents from ~/Library is not created, it was possible to zip a plist in LaunchAgents/~$escape.plist and place the zip file in ~/Library so when decompress it will reach the persistence destination.

Check the original report here.

Word Sandbox bypass via Login Items and .zshenv ​

(Remember that from the first escape, Word can write arbitrary files whose name start with ~$).

However, the previous technique had a limitation, if the folder ~/Library/LaunchAgents exists because some other software created it, it would fail. So a different Login Items chain was discovered for this.

An attacker could create the the files .bash_profile and .zshenv with the payload to execute and then zip them and write the zip in the victims user folder: ~/~$escape.zip.

Then, add the zip file to the Login Items and then the Terminal app. When the user relogins, the zip file would be uncompressed in the users file, overwriting .bash_profile and .zshenv and therefore, the terminal will execute one of these files (depending if bash or zsh is used).

Check the original report here.

Word Sandbox Bypass with Open and env variables ​

From sandboxed processes it's still possible to invoke other processes using the open utility. Moreover, these processes will run within their own sandbox.

It was discovered that the open utility has the --env option to run an app with specific env variables. Therefore, it was possible to create the .zshenv file within a folder inside the sandbox and the use open with --env setting the HOME variable to that folder opening that Terminal app, which will execute the .zshenv file (for some reason it was also needed to set the variable __OSINSTALL_ENVIROMENT).

Check the original report here.

Word Sandbox Bypass with Open and stdin ​

The open utility also supported the --stdin param (and after the previous bypass it was no longer possible to use --env).

The thing is that even if python was signed by Apple, it won't execute a script with the quarantine attribute. However, it was possible to pass it a script from stdin so it won't check if it was quarantined or not:

  1. Drop a ~$exploit.py file with arbitrary Python commands.
  2. Run open –stdin='~$exploit.py' -a Python, which runs the Python app with our dropped file serving as its standard input. Python happily runs our code, and since it’s a child process of launchd, it isn’t bound to Word’s sandbox rules.
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