Apple Pushes Another Automatic Mac Software Update to Address Further Zoom-Related Vulnerabilities

Tuesday July 16, 2019 10:42 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today pushed a second silent security update to Macs to address further vulnerabilities related to the Zoom video conferencing app for macOS, reports The Verge.

Apple removed software that was installed by RingCentral and Zhumu, two video conferencing apps that relied on technology from Zoom and were also found to have the same vulnerabilities as Zoom earlier this week.

zoom logo
These two apps installed software able to respond to commands that could potentially allow websites to open up your webcam during a video conference without permission. Removing the apps did not remove the secondary software that was vulnerable to exploitation, which is also how Zoom worked.

Discovered last week, the Zoom vulnerability let a website forcibly initiate a video call on a Mac with the Zoom app installed, due to a web server that Zoom installed in the background.

When the vulnerability was first discovered, Zoom said that it used a local web server as a workaround to Safari changes that Apple introduced in Safari 12, calling it a "legitimate solution" to an otherwise "poor user experience" that allowed users to access "seamless, one-click-to-join meetings."

At issue was a new popup Apple implemented to require user approval when launching a third-party app, which Zoom wanted to avoid. Zoom did so through the aforementioned web server, which was designed to wait for calls to open up Zoom conferences automatically.

Zoom eventually released a patch to address the issue, and Apple also took the step of removing web server software that was not initially removed from the Mac when uninstalling the Zoom app. Zoom has since made it so uninstalling the Zoom app will remove the web server, and has made other changes.

Installing Zoom no longer installs a local web server on Mac devices, and there is a new setting to save the "Always turn off my video" preference that disables video in Zoom by default until it is manually enabled.

As with the original Zoom patch, the new patch for RingCentral and Zhumu is deployed automatically so that users are not required to apply it manually for it to take effect. Apple told The Verge that it plans to fix the vulnerability for all of Zoom's partner apps.

Tag: Zoom

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Top Rated Comments

BWhaler

66 months ago

NO

It was NOT discovered last week.

ZOOM was informed months ago, decided not to fix the patch because it would lower their value proposition and product strategy. Again, they chose to leave the security hole open for their business gain.

Two weeks ago was when the researcher got fed up and disclosed it to the public. Only then did Zoom jump into PR mode and fox the problem.

Apple, god bless them, learned of this and shut the exploit down. No point waiting for an unethical company. What else does Zoom know about they still haven’t disclosed?

MacRumors writers, do your job. Don’t let unethical companies spin or this behavior will never go away.

Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)

arkmannj

66 months ago

Even if you discount the security issues... thanks companies for installing a 24x7 service consuming resources just to avoid a potential CLICK.

Good on Apple for pushing out the updates to help mitigate the stupidity of these companies.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Westside guy

66 months ago

Any chance you’re willing to share your script? :) It’s a shame that you’d even need to make something like that, especially having to run regularly.

Here it is, warts and all (replace "{username1}, {username2}, etc. with actual user accounts of course).

* There should really be some error checking added to this, for example it shouldn't try to move the files if it's unable to create the "-unused" directories.
* Released under the "you break it, you get to keep both pieces" license

#!/bin/bash -f

#
# Cleans out all the cruft that Adobe, Microsoft, and Google try to hide
# in the Launch* directories. This script works from the command line, but
# it's mainly intended for use as a cron job.
#
# Needs to be run with sudo, or as root
#
#
# Changelog: Added Skype to the list 2018-12-03 TLS
#
# Initial script written 2018-08-15 TLS
#

if [ $USER != "root" ] ; then
echo "Error - needs to be run with root permissions (you are $USER). Please use sudo."
exit 1;
fi

DIRECTORY_LIST=(
"/Library/LaunchAgents"
"/Library/LaunchDaemons"
"/Users/{username1}/Library/LaunchAgents"
"/Users/{username2}/Library/LaunchAgents"
)
UNWANTED_LAUNCHERS_LIST=(
"com.adobe.*"
"com.citrix.*"
"com.google.*"
"com.lifescan.*"
"com.microsoft.*"
"com.skype.*"
)

for THIS_DIR in ${DIRECTORY_LIST* } ; do
if [ ! -d $THIS_DIR ] ; then
continue
fi
STORAGE_DIR="$THIS_DIR-unused"
if [ ! -d $STORAGE_DIR ] ; then
mkdir $STORAGE_DIR
fi
for THIS_GLOB in ${UNWANTED_LAUNCHERS_LIST* } ; do
find $THIS_DIR -maxdepth 1 -type f -iname $THIS_GLOB -exec mv \{\} $STORAGE_DIR \;
done
done

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Westside guy

66 months ago

Even if you discount the security issues... thanks companies for installing a 24x7 service consuming resources just to avoid a potential CLICK.

Yeah, this is a problem - even setting aside security concerns. All sorts of companies add superfluous scripts to our system's LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons folders, usually for no good reason. Adobe, Citrix, Google, Microsoft, etc. Maybe each one doesn't normally chew up much memory, but the effect is cumulative... and sometimes those processes run away.

I actually have a "cleanup unwanted launchers" bash script running as a cron job on all my Macs. It runs each hour and moves the cruft any of these companies (and a couple others) placed into the various LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons folders into LaunchAgents-unused and LaunchDaemons-unused, respectively.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Kaibelf

66 months ago

Automatic silent OS updates huh? Sounds like some Google privacy invading stuff to me.

Howso? By making sure people can NOT access your camera and mic without your knowledge in a way that was designed to sidestep basic OS protections, now it's invading your privacy?

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)