Attacks likely against unpatched Mac OS Samba bug

Symantec last week warned Mac OS X users that the addition of an exploit to the Metasploit hacking framework had boosted the threat posed by an unpatched bug in Samba, the open-source file- and print-sharing software included with the Apple operating system.

Although the vulnerability was disclosed May 14 and patched that same day by the Samba community, Apple has not updated Mac OS X with a fix, said Symantec’s Alfred Huger, vice president of engineering with the security company’s response group.

“This is significant exposure for Mac OS X users,” said Huger. “Samba is used in virtually every mixed environment where there are Macs and PCs, and the threat profile is much higher now that an exploit has been added to Metasploit.”

Samba, which is also used by most Linux distributions to file- and print-sharing with Windows systems, is turned on in Mac OS X when users activate the Windows Sharing feature.

This month, a trio of Brazilian researchers who collaborate as Rise Security released Mac OS X attack code for the Samba vulnerability. According to Symantec, the Rise code is “almost identical” to what the company’s security team discovered in late May.

Read more at LinuxWorld