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| Mac OS X's Init script can be crashed by holding down the CTRL-C keys on a USB keyboard. Once the Init script has crashed enough times, it will drop the user into a root console. |
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Credit:
The information has been provided by Jason Storm.
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Vulnerable systems:
* Mac OS X version 10.2.7 and prior
* Mac OS X version 10.2.8
Immune systems:
* Mac OS X version 10.3.0
Mac OS X's Init script can be crashed using a USB keyboard by holding down CTRL-C immediately after boot, and keeping it held down. Init will crash two or three minutes into the boot process which will be followed by it dropping into a root shell.
At this point, you can of course modify the file system, or selectively run components of the rc scripts to bring up full OS X functionality without the GUI layer, which will demand a root password and lock you out once its spawned successfully.
The 'exploit' is dependant on a USB keyboard being used. It will not work on a PowerBooks without a USB keyboard attached, for example.
Vendor status:
This was originally reported to Apple in 1998, and Jason was informed that this was an 'internal development feature' that would be removed.
Three years later Jason reported this 'internal development feature' again, and received no reply at all.
Now that Panther is out and this 'internal development feature' appears to be resolved (no doubt thanks to the massive reworking of OS X USB code), Jason sees no reason not to give people a good reason to upgrade by releasing this information.
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