Apple's flashy M1 chip has an unfixable security flaw.
Apparently, bad actors can exploit memory corruption vulnerabilities in software and weaknesses in microprocessor design to circumvent pointer authentication codes. Memory corruption vulnerabilities are caused by bugs that enable a hacker to mess with the content of a memory location and hijack a program's flow of execution.
PA uses a cryptographic hash called Pointer Authentication Code, or PAC, to ensure a pointer has not been modified. To bypass such a system, an attacker would need to guess a PAC value. The size of the PAC is sometimes small enough to be"bruteforced," or cracked with trial and error. A simple bruteforcing approach won't be enough to break PA though, as every time an incorrect PA is entered, the program crashes.
The researchers have shown that such a PAC oracle can be used to brute-force the correct value and gain access to a program or operating system, which in this case is macOS. The problem with attacking PAC is that it’s impossible to bruteforce without causing crashes . However, what if there was a way to suppress crashes…?The team has also shown that the attack works across privilege levels, meaning it could be used to attack the operating system kernel, which is the core of an operating system. The vulnerability is not only found in the M1 but also in its beefed-up versions, the M1 Pro and M1 Max.
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