Microsoft Apps For MacOS Leave Mac Users Vulnerable To Security Threats

Security researchers at Cisco Talos have discovered a set of vulnerabilities affecting macOS users who have Microsoft applications installed on their computers, providing more attack vectors for malicious actors. The researchers say that “an attacker could bypass the operating system’s permission model by using existing app permissions without prompting the user for any additional verification.”

Part of what makes the vulnerabilities so dangerous relates with how Apple handles app permissions in macOS. Apple allows users to control whether or not to grant permissions that an application requests as part of the “Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) framework.” Ideally, this security design choice helps users to better protect their privacy and data.

Unfortunately, this idea runs into problems when it encounters the way various Microsoft applications work in macOS. All Office apps allow unsigned dynamic libraries to be loaded, which opens the door for an attacker to hijack the permissions these apps request for a malicious app to take advantage of. All of this would happen without the user noticing because the permissions were granted when the software was originally installed.


This situation highlights how difficult it is to secure operating systems. Even when Apple implements a solid security design for macOS users, it can still be bypassed when application developers make poor design decisions or are too broad in their permissions requests. At the very least, it would be nice for Microsoft to implement changes with the release of these security findings.

This new security report is also a reminder that users play an important role in keeping their systems safe. Malware still needs to find a way onto a system before it can take advantage of these vulnerabilities, so users should always be mindful of where they acquire software that’s going to be installed on their computers.