Dive into Apple UserFS (Userspace Filesystem)
summary
Apple moves FAT/exFAT handling into a user-space framework where a USB mount flows: lockd triggers UserFSD, UserFSD calls UVFS service which loads plugins and delegates to Live File Provider D and the userland tool mount_lif_fs; kernel RIFS forwards syscalls to user space via Mach messages (notably message ID 0x285) with per-request IDs. Reverse engineering finds XATTR offset checks missing, allowing attribute-overwrite primitives; a one-bit overwrite primitive yields a root shell on macOS 10.10.1 and the bug affects iOS <16.2 (CVE-2022-42861 related).
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:18What is Apple UserFS
- 7:58Mounting UserFS volumes
- 12:24Accessing files via UserFS
- 15:34UserFS vulnerabilities
- 21:04Exploiting UserFS for kernel attacks
- 22:12Filesystem security changes
- 23:41Advantages and disadvantages of UserFS
- 24:46UserFS performance impact
- 25:08Conclusion
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