Siri on Mac lets you quickly find and open files, set reminders, send text messages, and more, making it easy to handle the things you do every day. 2 With “Type to Siri” mode, you can make requests using a physical or onscreen keyboard. And Siri can also predict your next word based on what you’ve said before, so you can minimize typing over time. Jan 23, 2020 Zoom, the cloud meeting company, unifies cloud video conferencing, simple online meetings, and group messaging into one easy-to-use platform.Take advantage of a complete solution that includes video, audio, and screen-sharing experience across ZoomPresence, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and H.323/SIP room systems.
Update: Zoom says it has a series of updates planned to address these security concerns.
A new zero-day vulnerability has been disclosed for the Zoom video conference app on the Mac. In a post on Medium, security researcher Jonathan Leitschuh outlined the flaw, which could let websites take over your Mac’s camera.
When you install the Zoom app on your Mac, it also installs a web server, which “accepts requests regular browsers wouldn’t,” as detailed by The Verge. It’s that web server that is seemingly causing this vulnerability.
Essentially, the Zoom web server is running as a background process. Thus, any website is able to “forcibly join a user to a Zoom call, with their video camera activated, without the user’s permission.” If you simply click a link, you’ll automatically join a Zoom conference call with your camera enabled, even if you no longer have the Zoom app installed.
We tested the vulnerability using a link in Leitschuh’s Medium post and were immediately connected to a Zoom conference call with our Mac’s camera enabled. One of the most jarring aspects of this vulnerability is that it works even if you have uninstalled the Zoom app:
Additionally, if you’ve ever installed the Zoom client and then uninstalled it, you still have a localhost web server on your machine that will happily re-install the Zoom client for you, without requiring any user interaction on your behalf besides visiting a webpage. This re-install ‘feature’ continues to work to this day.
Leitschuh first disclosed the vulnerability to Zoom back in March. The timeline in the Medium post explains that the vulnerability was fixed at one point since then, but that a regression this month caused the vulnerability to work again. The regression was fixed today, but Leitschuh discovered a workaround.
Additionally, Zoom lacks “sufficient auto-update capabilities,” according to Leitschuh, which means there are still still users running older versions of the app.
So how can you protect yourself? The easiest way is to go into the Zoom settings window and enable the “Turn off my video when joining a meeting” setting. You can also run a series of Terminal commands to uninstall the web server completely, and those commands can be found at the bottom of Leitschuh’s Medium post.
More technical details, as well as proof of concept links, can be found on Medium.
This Zoom vulnerability is bananas. I tried one of the proof of concept links and got connected to three other randos also freaking out about it in real time. https://t.co/w7JKHk8nZypic.twitter.com/arOE6DbQaf
— Matt Haughey (@mathowie) July 9, 2019
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macOS High Sierra (10.13) has introduced a new security feature that requires user approval when you install new driver software.
Products: Q2n, Q4n, Q8, L-12, TAC-2, TAC-2R, TAC-8, UAC-2, UAC-8, R16 and R24
If you do not approve, your Mac will not recognize the product.
To enable the products on Mac, please follow these steps:
1. Please uninstall the driver if it is already installed on Mac.
2. Please reinstall the driver. Then, open 'System Preferences' and click 'Security & Privacy'.
If display 'System Extension Blocked' in a popup window when you install the driver, please click 'OK'.
3. When the 'Security & Privacy' opens, you will see a message below:
System software from developer 'ZOOM CORPORATION' was blocked from loading.
4. Click the Allow button in the lower right corner.
About Zoom North America:
Zoom North America is the U.S. affiliate of the Zoom Corporation (Japan). The company prides itself on offering its customers the very highest level of service and support.
For more information, please visit www.zoom-na.com or contact Zoom North America at info@zoom-na.com.