RE: Another Mac OS X ScreenSaver Security Issue (after Security Update 2003-07-14)

[Rizwan Jiwan <Rizwan.Jiwan () KINGSTON Hummingbird com>]

I wouldn't consider this a bug. It is like me writing a script that kills
any process named "ScreenSaverEngine". If I run it with my privileges it
should allow me to kill the process (assuming I own ScreenSaverEngine).
Escape Pod does what it is meant to. OS X does what it is meant to--that is
unless you are suggesting that the operating system not allow the user to
kill the screen saver process which is just stupid because I have had my
screen saver crash on me.

-Riz

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick Haruksteiner [mailto:haruk () gmx at]
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 4:56 PM
To: Doug White
Subject: Re: Another Mac OS X ScreenSaver Security Issue (after Security
Update 2003-07-14)



On Wednesday, July 30, 2003, at 10:07 h, Doug White wrote:
> On Tue, 29 Jul 2003, Patrick Haruksteiner wrote:
>
> > I discoverd another security issue with the Mac OS X screensaver.
> > If you have installed escapepod from Ambrosia Software and hit
> > crtl-alt-delete(==backspace) when the screensaver with password
> > protection is running, it kills the screensaver and the desktop is
> > open to anybody - so it has the same effect as the recently
> > emerged password-exploit.
>
> This is not a bug in Apple software. This is a third party extension.
>
> Ambrosia's Escape Pod is a utility that kills the frontmost app when 
> the
> shortcut keystroke is typed. Naturally it does not ship with MacOS X.
>
> Since the screen saver is just another application (called
> ScreenSaverEngine), if you hit the kill key when its running, it gets
> killed.  Fancy that!

I know that! But it should be the concern of the OS that you cannot 
circumvent its security system with the help of other applications!


--
harp