Security Researchers Find Security Vulnerabilities In Zoom's Auto-Update Options On MacOS

Mac security researchers discover vulnerability in Zoom app on macOS (photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Zoom released the latest version of its Mac application, due to a security vulnerability in the application's automatic update option.

In an August 13 security bulletin found by MacRumor, Zoom said that, versions 5.7.3 through 5.11.3 of its macOS app contained vulnerabilities in the automatic update process.

The vulnerability was first uncovered by a Mac security researcher, Patrick Wardle at last week's Def Con hacking conference.

Reversing the patch, we see the Zoom installer now invokes lchown to update the permissions of the update .pkg, thus preventing malicious subversions 🔐👍🏽 pic.twitter.com/00xjqKQsXs

— patrick wardle (@patrickwardle) August 14, 2022

According to Wardle, the security vulnerability could be exploited by a local user with low privileges, allowing hackers to take over the victim's Mac device.

According to a report from The Verge who was present at the conference, hackers targeted Zoom's auto-update installer which requires special user permissions to run.

Wardle discovered that hackers could trick Zoom and bypass signature checks by naming their malware files in a certain way.

From here, hackers can gain further access to the user's system, letting them modify, delete, or add files on the device.

Because of this, Wardle released the latest version 5.12.5 of the Zoom application for masOS which it seeks to patch the vulnerability.

To install the 5.11.5 update, you can install it on Zoom by opening the app on your Mac and pressing zoom.us.

Then, select Check for updates, if available, Zoom will display a window with the latest version of the app, along with details about what changed. After that, select Update to start the download.