Comment by Nextgrid
5 months ago
So it just has to wait until you’re about to do a legitimate operation requiring authentication, intercept that to export the key, and cancel the real one with a bogus error (and you’ll just try again without any second thoughts).
MacOS has also no concept of secure desktop/etc where the OS can use some privileged UI to explicitly tell you what you are signing and prompt for PIN/biometrics. It’s in fact a well-known problem where legitimate dialogs for system/Apple ID password have no distinguishing features from fake ones.
Couldn’t any type of dialogue be faked? What are you suggesting is possible but not implemented?
Generally dialogs that require sensitive input provide some way for the user to ensure they are issued by the OS and not a random program. Windows historically used the Secure Attention Key (that's why domain-linked machines used to require pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del to login, to train users to only enter credentials in secure contexts) which is a key combo that the OS always intercepts and thus once pressed you can be assured you are typing into a trusted UI and not a piece of malware emulating the trusted UI.
Of course, this was back in the day when computers were primarily a productivity tool and not an ad delivery vehicle, so it's unlikely this problem will ever be solved.