For its part, Apple seems to be aware of the problem and is quietly fixing it without specifying a CVE identifier. The Park Minchan team and colleagues also discovered that Apple's patch only partially addresses the vulnerability, as it can still be exploited by changing the protocol used to execute embed commands from the file. :// to File://.
"We have informed Apple that FiLe:// (value change only) does not appear to be blocked, but have not received any response from them so far. As far as we know, currently Currently, this vulnerability has not really been patched."
The team has not provided any specific information on how attackers can abuse this vulnerability. However, in theory, it is entirely possible to be used by threat actors to create malicious email attachments that can launch an accompanying or remote payload when accessed by the victim.
Initial field tests have confirmed that this vulnerability can be used to run arbitrary commands on macOS Big Sur, using specially crafted files downloaded from the Internet without any any prompts or warnings.
A .inetloc file with PoC code also went undetected by any anti-malware engine on VirusTotal. That means macOS users targeted by threat actors using this attack method will not be protected by security software.
Hopefully Apple will soon implement more thorough measures to fix the problem in the near future