CVE-2025-24088: Apple macOS Auth Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2025-24088 Overview

CVE-2025-24088 is a high-severity Improper Access Control vulnerability affecting Apple macOS. The vulnerability exists due to insufficient logic validation that allows applications to override Mobile Device Management (MDM) enforced settings from configuration profiles. This flaw poses significant risks to enterprise environments that rely on MDM solutions to enforce security policies and manage device configurations.

Critical Impact

Applications may bypass MDM-enforced security policies and configuration profiles, potentially undermining enterprise security controls and compliance requirements.

Affected Products

• Apple macOS (versions prior to macOS Tahoe 26)

Discovery Timeline

• September 15, 2025 - CVE-2025-24088 published to NVD
• November 03, 2025 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-24088

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability falls under CWE-284 (Improper Access Control), indicating a fundamental flaw in how macOS validates and enforces access restrictions for MDM configuration profiles. The issue allows applications running on the system to circumvent the security boundaries established by MDM solutions, effectively overriding settings that administrators have deployed to managed devices.

In enterprise environments, MDM profiles are critical for enforcing security policies such as password requirements, encryption settings, application restrictions, network configurations, and compliance standards. When an application can override these enforced settings, it undermines the entire device management infrastructure and could lead to unauthorized changes to security-critical configurations.

The vulnerability is network-accessible, meaning that a malicious application delivered remotely could exploit this flaw without requiring additional user interaction or elevated privileges. This characteristic significantly increases the potential attack surface in enterprise deployments.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-24088 stems from insufficient logic validation within macOS when processing requests that interact with MDM-enforced configuration profiles. The operating system failed to properly verify whether an application had legitimate authority to modify or override settings that were locked by MDM profiles. Apple addressed this by adding additional logic to validate these requests and ensure that MDM-enforced settings cannot be overridden by unauthorized applications.

Attack Vector

The attack vector for this vulnerability involves a malicious or compromised application running on a managed macOS device. An attacker could craft an application that exploits the insufficient validation logic to modify MDM-enforced settings. This could be delivered through various means including:

• Malicious applications distributed through unofficial channels
• Compromised legitimate applications
• Trojanized software targeting enterprise environments
• Social engineering attacks that convince users to install unauthorized software

The vulnerability does not require any user interaction beyond the initial installation and execution of the malicious application, and does not require elevated privileges to exploit.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-24088

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected changes to MDM-enforced configuration profiles on managed devices
• Applications attempting to modify system preferences that should be locked by MDM policies
• Audit logs showing configuration changes that did not originate from the MDM console
• Discrepancies between MDM-reported device configurations and actual device states

Detection Strategies

• Monitor for unexpected modifications to system configuration profiles using endpoint detection tools
• Implement configuration drift detection to identify when MDM-enforced settings have been altered
• Review MDM console logs for discrepancies between pushed policies and device compliance status
• Deploy behavioral analysis to detect applications attempting to access or modify protected system settings

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable comprehensive audit logging for system configuration changes on all managed macOS devices
• Configure MDM solutions to alert on compliance policy violations or unexpected configuration changes
• Implement real-time monitoring of applications that interact with system preferences and configuration profiles
• Establish baseline configurations and continuously monitor for deviations

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-24088

Immediate Actions Required

• Update all affected macOS systems to macOS Tahoe 26 or later as soon as possible
• Review MDM-managed devices for any unexpected configuration changes
• Audit installed applications on managed devices for unauthorized or suspicious software
• Verify that MDM-enforced policies are being correctly applied after updating

Patch Information

Apple has addressed this vulnerability in macOS Tahoe 26 by implementing additional logic to properly validate and enforce MDM configuration profile restrictions. Organizations should prioritize deploying this update to all managed macOS devices. For detailed patch information, refer to the Apple Support Article.

Additional technical details are available on the Full Disclosure Mailing List.

Workarounds

• Restrict application installation to only approved software from trusted sources via MDM policies
• Implement application allowlisting to prevent unauthorized applications from executing
• Enable stricter endpoint protection policies to detect and block suspicious application behavior
• Consider isolating critical managed devices until patches can be applied
• Increase monitoring frequency for configuration compliance on unpatched systems