Apple Security Update 2004-10-27
Apple Security Update 2004-10-27 is now available via the Software Update panel. It fixes the following issue which affects Apple Remote Desktop 2.x:
CVE-ID: CAN-2004-0962
Impact: An application can be started behind the loginwindow and it will run as root.
Description: For a system with these following conditions
- Apple Remote Desktop client installed
- A user on the client system has been enabled with the Open and quit applications privilege
- The username and password of the ARD user is known
- Fast user switching has been enabled
- A user is logged in, and loginwindow is active via Fast User Switching
If the Apple Remote Desktop Administrator application on another system is used to start a GUI application on the client, then the GUI application would run as root behind the loginwindow. This update prevents Apple Remote Desktop from launching applications when the loginwindow is active. This security enhancement is also present in Apple Remote Desktop v2.1. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X 10.3. Credit to Andrew Nakhla and Secunia Research for reporting this issue.
See the release notes at http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798
