Executive Summary

This vulnerability affects the Arduino IDE for macOS versions prior to 2.3.7. The application is installed with world-writable file permissions on sensitive components, which means any local user can modify these files and replace them with malicious code. When another user runs the application, the malicious code executes with that user's privileges, potentially allowing privilege escalation and unauthorized access to sensitive data. The root cause is incorrect default permissions (CWE-276). The issue was fixed in version 2.3.7 by correcting the file permissions to prevent unauthorized modifications. [1]

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can allow a local attacker with low privileges to escalate their privileges by injecting malicious code into the Arduino IDE application files. When another user launches the application, the malicious code runs with that user's privileges, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data. However, the impact on confidentiality and integrity is considered low, and there is no impact on availability. [1]

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability can be detected by checking for world-writable file permissions on sensitive Arduino IDE application components on macOS systems with versions prior to 2.3.7. You can use commands like `ls -l` or `find` to identify files with insecure permissions. For example, running `find /Applications/Arduino.app -perm -o=w` can list files that are world-writable within the Arduino IDE application directory. [1]

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Mitigation Strategies

The immediate mitigation step is to update the Arduino IDE on macOS to version 2.3.7 or later, where the file permissions issue has been fixed to prevent unauthorized modifications. Until the update is applied, restrict local user access to the Arduino IDE application files to prevent unauthorized changes. [1]

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Compliance Impact

The provided resources do not contain information regarding the impact of this vulnerability on compliance with common standards and regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA.

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