Comment by hyh1048576
10 years ago
Great summary. But it's still some kind of hack.
If every app I installed did this then my mac is closer to getting hacked.
Anyway, Apps that asks for root password on installation always makes me cringe, e.g. they could turn on SSH and put a pubkey into authorized_keys, or they could upload SSH identity files. But I still proceed to enter my password.
> Anyway, Apps that asks for root password on installation always makes me cringe, e.g. they could turn on SSH and put a pubkey into authorized_keys, or they could upload SSH identity files. But I still proceed to enter my password.
You don't need root to do any of those things. If you're going to run the SSH server on port 22, sure, but it can be run on any port above 1024 by a regular user in user space.
If you're already running an SSH server, a non-root app can most likely edit your ~/.ssh/authorized_key file. It's just a regular file, nothing special about a malicious app adding an entry to it.
Think a NAT is going to save you? A malicious program can SSH out and create a reverse tunnel to circumvent it.
Short answer: running anything you don't know or trust is dangerous, root access just makes it more dangerous.
>If you're already running an SSH server, a non-root app can most likely edit your ~/.ssh/authorized_key file. It's just a regular file, nothing special about a malicious app adding an entry to it.
That file is -rw-r--r--, so only the owner or root can change it, unless I am misunderstanding you?
That app is running as you, so it is the owner of the file at that point.
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How's that any different compared to Linux? AFAIK apt packages can run arbitrary scripts as root.
It's slightly different, because Dropbox board members support warrantless surveillance: http://www.drop-dropbox.com/
This is not the main difference (which is that apt packages are checked by package maintainers), but thanks for sharing the link, didn't know that. It makes this hack even more serious.
Off topic, but her head sure looks like a mushroom cloud.
There's a world of difference, as long as you are using only default repositories (which you should). Apt itself is root, of course, but it is (or should be) trustworthy. All other apps never see root access unless they need it - and if it is needed, then the package maintainer has checked the package to make sure it only uses root when necessary. Kind of like Apple checking apps on AppStore.
No respectable package would put up a fake sudo prompt only to stash away your password for later use.
It's a good thing Dropbox isn't doing that, then.
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Linux packages come from the distribution and are controlled by the distribution, not some random 3rd party business.