Researcher Filippo Cavallarin disclosed a bug in the macOS security feature Gatekeeper that allows malicious code execution on systems running the most recent version of Mojave (10.14.0).
MacOS Gatekeeper is an Apple security feature that enforces code signing and verifies downloads and apps before users run them. The goal is to eliminate the possibility of malicious files being executed on systems. Gatekeeper requires the user’s consent before opening a file.
“On MacOS X version <= 10.14.5 (at time of writing) it is possible to easily bypass Gatekeeper in order to execute untrusted code without any warning or user’s explicit permission,”
wrote Cavallarin, the CEO of Segment, an Italian security firm.
While there is no patch from Apple, at this time, a workaround to mitigate the vulnerability is available.
The researcher said he notified Apple of the flaw on February 22. Since then, Apple as not issued a patch, the researcher noted. “This issue was supposed to be addressed, according to the vendor, on May 15th 2019 but Apple started dropping my emails. Since Apple is aware of my 90 days disclosure deadline, I make this information public,” he wrote.
