Local privilege escalation via PID reuse
Published May 4, 2023 · Updated Jan 29, 2025
Privilege escalation in Mailbutler Shimo VPN Client 5.0.4 for macOS allows local users to create arbitrary files as root. The com.feingeist.shimo.helper XPC listener validates a connecting client's processIdentifier rather than its audit token, enabling PID reuse to impersonate a signed Shimo process. A local race winner can invoke writeConfig:atPath:withReply: without Shimo credentials and place attacker-controlled content in root-owned locations.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in Mailbutler Shimo VPN Client 5.0.4 for macOS allows local users to create arbitrary files as root. The com.feingeist.shimo.helper XPC listener validates a connecting client's processIdentifier rather than its audit token, enabling PID reuse to impersonate a signed Shimo process. A local race winner can invoke writeConfig:atPath:withReply: without Shimo credentials and place attacker-controlled content in root-owned locations.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-30328
- Published
- May 4, 2023
- Updated
- Jan 29, 2025
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-287, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 4, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 29, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Shimo 5.0.4 PID-reuse exploit codeproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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