CVE-2025-43304: Apple macOS Privilege Escalation Flaw

CVE-2025-43304 Overview

CVE-2025-43304 is a race condition vulnerability in Apple macOS that allows a local application to gain root privileges. Apple addressed the issue with improved state handling across three supported macOS releases. The flaw is categorized under [CWE-362] (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization). Successful exploitation grants an attacker full control over the affected system, including the ability to install persistent malware, disable security controls, and access protected user data.

Critical Impact
A local application can exploit a timing window in macOS state handling to escalate privileges from a standard user context to root.

Affected Products

Apple macOS Sequoia versions prior to 15.7
Apple macOS Sonoma versions prior to 14.8
Apple macOS Tahoe versions prior to 26

Discovery Timeline

2025-09-15 - CVE-2025-43304 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-43304

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2025-43304 stems from a race condition in a macOS system component that manages privileged state. When two or more threads or processes access shared state without proper synchronization, an attacker can interleave operations to force the system into an inconsistent state. Apple's advisory describes the remediation as "improved state handling," indicating that the underlying object or resource was mutable during a security-sensitive window.

Exploitation requires local access with low privileges and no user interaction. The high attack complexity reflects the difficulty of winning the race window reliably. However, once the window is won, an attacker gains root, which compromises confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the host.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper synchronization of shared state between concurrent execution paths. A time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) pattern or a similar atomicity violation allows an unprivileged process to modify or substitute an object after a privilege check but before the privileged operation completes. This class of flaw is tracked as [CWE-362].

Attack Vector

An attacker with the ability to run code on the target macOS system, such as through a malicious application, script, or compromised user account, can trigger the race repeatedly to exploit the timing window. No network access and no user interaction are required. Apple has not published exploitation details, and no public proof-of-concept is available at this time. Refer to Apple Support Document #125110, Apple Support Document #125111, and Apple Support Document #125112 for vendor guidance.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-43304

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected processes running with uid=0 (root) that were spawned by unprivileged user sessions.
New or modified files in privileged locations such as /Library/LaunchDaemons/, /System/Library/, or /private/etc/ following suspicious application activity.
Repeated, rapid invocations of the same system call or helper binary from a single unprivileged process, consistent with race-window exploitation attempts.

Detection Strategies

Monitor macOS Endpoint Security events (ES_EVENT_TYPE_NOTIFY_EXEC, ES_EVENT_TYPE_NOTIFY_FORK) for privilege transitions where a child process runs as root under a non-administrative parent.
Correlate high-frequency syscall bursts with subsequent process creations under root to identify race exploitation patterns.
Alert on modifications to launch daemon and launch agent plists that follow unusual process behavior.

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable and centralize macOS Unified Logging with a focus on com.apple.securityd, com.apple.launchd, and authorization subsystem events.
Track installations and executions of unsigned or ad-hoc signed binaries in user-writable directories such as /tmp/, /var/tmp/, and ~/Library/.
Baseline expected root-level process ancestry and alert on deviations.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-43304

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade affected systems to macOS Sequoia 15.7, macOS Sonoma 14.8, or macOS Tahoe 26 as soon as operational testing permits.
Inventory macOS endpoints by version and prioritize devices used by administrators or those with access to sensitive data.
Restrict installation of unsigned or untrusted third-party applications through management policies until patching is complete.

Patch Information

Apple released fixes in macOS Sequoia 15.7, macOS Sonoma 14.8, and macOS Tahoe 26. Refer to Apple Support Document #125110, Apple Support Document #125111, and Apple Support Document #125112 for release notes and download instructions. Deploy patches through your mobile device management (MDM) solution or Apple's Software Update mechanism.

Workarounds

No vendor-supplied workaround exists; applying the security update is the only supported remediation.
Reduce local attack surface by removing unnecessary local user accounts and enforcing least-privilege access on shared macOS systems.
Enable Gatekeeper and System Integrity Protection (SIP) to limit the execution of untrusted code that could stage this exploit.

bash

# Verify installed macOS version and apply available updates
sw_vers -productVersion
sudo softwareupdate --list
sudo softwareupdate --install --all --restart