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</details>
## MacOS Process Abuse
MacOS, like any other operating system, provides a variety of methods and mechanisms for **processes to interact, communicate, and share data**. While these techniques are essential for efficient system functioning, they can also be abused by threat actors to **perform malicious activities**.
### Library Injection
Library Injection is a technique wherein an attacker **forces a process to load a malicious library**. Once injected, the library runs in the context of the target process, providing the attacker with the same permissions and access as the process.
Function Hooking involves **intercepting function calls** or messages within a software code. By hooking functions, an attacker can **modify the behavior** of a process, observe sensitive data, or even gain control over the execution flow.
Inter Process Communication (IPC) refers to different methods by which separate processes **share and exchange data**. While IPC is fundamental for many legitimate applications, it can also be misused to subvert process isolation, leak sensitive information, or perform unauthorized actions.
NIB files **define user interface (UI) elements** and their interactions within an application. However, they can **execute arbitrary commands** and **Gatekeeper doesn't stop** an already executed application from being executed if a **NIB file is modified**. Therefore, they could be used to make arbitrary programs execute arbitrary commands:
It's possible to abuse certain java capabilities (like the **`_JAVA_OPTS`** env variable) to make a java application execute **arbitrary code/commands**.
It's possible to inject code into .Net applications by **abusing the .Net debugging functionality** (not protected by macOS protections such as runtime hardening).
If the environment variable **`PYTHONINSPECT`** is set, the python process will drop into a python cli once it's finished. It's also possible to use **`PYTHONSTARTUP`** to indicate a python script to execute at the beginning of an interactive session.\
However, note that **`PYTHONSTARTUP`** script won't be executed when **`PYTHONINSPECT`** creates the interactive session.
Overall I couldn't find a way to make python execute arbitrary code abusing environment variables.\
However, most of the people install pyhton using **Hombrew**, which will install pyhton in a **writable location** for the default admin user. You can hijack it with something like:
[**Shield**](https://theevilbit.github.io/shield/) ([**Github**](https://github.com/theevilbit/Shield)) is an open source application that can **detect and block process injection** actions:
* Using **Environmental Variables**: It will monitor the presence of any of the following environmental variables: **`DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES`**, **`CFNETWORK_LIBRARY_PATH`**, **`RAWCAMERA_BUNDLE_PATH`** and **`ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE`**
* Using **`task_for_pid`** calls: To find when one process wants to get the **task port of another** which allows to inject code in the process.
* **Electron apps params**: Someone can use **`--inspect`**, **`--inspect-brk`** and **`--remote-debugging-port`** command line argument to start an Electron app in debugging mode, and thus inject code to it.
* Using **symlinks** or **hardlinks**: Typically the most common abuse is to **place a link with our user privileges**, and **point it to a higher privilege** location. The detection is very simple for both hardlink and symlinks. If the process creating the link has a **different privilege level** than the target file, we create an **alert**. Unfortunately in the case of symlinks blocking is not possible, as we don’t have information about the destination of the link prior creation. This is a limitation of Apple’s EndpointSecuriy framework.
In [**this blog post**](https://knight.sc/reverse%20engineering/2019/04/15/detecting-task-modifications.html) you can find how it's possible to use the function **`task_name_for_pid`** to get information about other **processes injecting code in a process** and then getting information about that other process.
Note that to call that function you need to be **the same uid** as the one running the process or **root** (and it returns info about the process, not a way to inject code).
* Do you work in a **cybersecurity company**? Do you want to see your **company advertised in HackTricks**? or do you want to have access to the **latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF**? Check the [**SUBSCRIPTION PLANS**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!
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* **Share your hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the** [**hacktricks repo**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) **and** [**hacktricks-cloud repo**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud).
