Researcher Uses macOS App Screenshot Feature to Steal Passwords, Tokens, Keys

posted onFebruary 11, 2018
by l33tdawg
https://www.bleepstatic.com/content/posts/2018/02/11/mac-take-screenshots.png
Credit: https://www.bleepstatic.com/content/posts/2018/02/11/mac-take-screenshots.png

Malicious app developers can secretly abuse a macOS API function to take screenshots of the user's screen and then use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to programmatically read the text found in the image.

The function is CGWindowListCreateImage, often utilized by Mac apps that take screenshots or live stream a user's desktop.

According to Fastlane Tools founder Felix Krause, any Mac app, sandboxed or not, can access this function and secretly take screenshots of the user's screen. Krause argues that miscreants can abuse this privacy loophole and utilize CGWindowListCreateImage to take screenshots of the screen without the user's permission.

Source

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Apple Security

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