Foreword

Abstract: This paper discusses the security implications of Mach being integrated with the Mac OS X kernel. A few examples are used to illustrate how Mach support can be used to bypass some of the BSD security features, such as securelevel. Furthermore, examples are given that show how Mach functions can be used to supplement the limited ptrace functionality included in Mac OS X.

Hello reader. I am writing this paper for two reasons. The first reason is to provide some documentation on the Mach side of Mac OS X for people who are unfamiliar with this and interested in looking into it. The second reason is to document my own research, as I am fairly inexperienced with Mach programming. Because of this fact, this paper may contain errors. If this is the case, please email me at nemo@felinemenace.org and I will try to correct it.