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"Introducing a new command line feature to restore access after losing your password"...
by yAnonymous 11y ago
"Introducing a new command line feature to restore access after losing your password"...
- madeofpalk 11y agoI know you're making a joke, but it's trivially easy to reset the admin password on a computer. https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4101 https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4101
- tempodox 11y agoChanging your own password is not the same as acquiring root privileges.
- madeofpalk 11y agoOh yeah I know, I wasn't trying to say it was. It was just a random aside based on the parents comment. On that point though, If you can change the password of an admin account on any Mac (that doesn't have filevault on), then you can use that to obtain root privileges on any Mac.
- JonathonW 11y agoSure, but that requires you to either already have an admin password, or be able to reboot the machine into recovery mode and retain control of it (which typically implies actual physical access). The privilege escalation exploit mentioned in the OP, while technically not remotely exploitable, can be used by malware with lower privileges (i.e. malware running as an unprivileged user, which got onto the machine either through a remote exploit or some sort of drive-by download) to silently elevate itself to root. That's something that shouldn't be possible.
- cjg_ 11y agoEnabling FileVault is an easy countermeasure.
- madeofpalk 11y agoYup. 'User accounts' have never been a proper security measure.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- justizin 11y agoHow so? FileVault is typically not tied to the root password, but to a primary user's password, which you don't even need root to change.
- iancarroll 11y agoYou cannot reset any user password on a FileVault disk because it's encrypted.