CVE-2025-46284: Apple macOS Privilege Escalation Flaw

CVE-2025-46284 Overview

CVE-2025-46284 is a race condition vulnerability in Apple macOS that allows a local application to gain root privileges. The flaw stems from insufficient validation during concurrent operations and is classified under CWE-362. Apple addressed the issue by adding validation logic in macOS Sequoia 15.7 and macOS Tahoe 26. The vulnerability requires local access and high attack complexity, but successful exploitation results in full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability on the affected host.

Critical Impact

A local application can win a timing race to obtain root privileges on unpatched macOS systems, enabling complete system takeover.

Affected Products

• Apple macOS versions prior to Sequoia 15.7
• Apple macOS versions prior to Tahoe 26

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-05-26 - CVE-2025-46284 published to NVD
• 2026-05-27 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46284

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a concurrent execution flaw [CWE-362] in a privileged macOS component. A race condition occurs when two or more operations execute in a non-atomic sequence and the security of the system depends on the ordering of those operations. Apple's advisory states the issue was addressed with additional validation, indicating the original code path performed a check on a resource that could change state before the resource was used.

An attacker with the ability to run code locally can repeatedly trigger the vulnerable code path, attempting to manipulate the protected resource between the time it is checked and the time it is acted upon. Winning this race causes the privileged process to operate on attacker-controlled input. The result is privilege escalation from a standard user context to root.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing or insufficient validation around a shared resource accessed concurrently by privileged code. The pre-patch implementation did not enforce atomicity or re-verify state, creating a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) condition. Apple's fix introduces additional validation steps to ensure the resource state is consistent at the point of use.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires local code execution on the target macOS device, with low privileges and no user interaction. The attack complexity is high because the attacker must reliably win a timing window between the check and the use operation. Specific implementation details have not been disclosed by Apple beyond the references to Apple Support Documents #125110 and #125111.

No public proof-of-concept exploit code has been released. Verified technical details are not available, so a sanitized exploitation example cannot be provided.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46284

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected processes spawned with uid=0 (root) from non-privileged parent processes
• High-frequency syscall loops from user processes targeting privileged macOS services, indicating race-window probing
• New or modified files in system locations such as /Library/LaunchDaemons/ or /usr/local/bin/ shortly after running an untrusted application

Detection Strategies

• Monitor process lineage for privilege transitions where a non-root parent yields a root child outside of standard sudo or launchd workflows
• Correlate Endpoint Security framework events that show rapid repeated access to the same privileged IPC endpoint or file path
• Baseline normal application behavior and alert on processes performing tight loops against privileged macOS APIs

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable and forward macOS Unified Logging and Endpoint Security telemetry to a central platform for correlation
• Track installed macOS build numbers across the fleet and flag any host below 15.7 (Sequoia) or 26 (Tahoe)
• Audit local privilege escalation events and review any root-owned files created by user-launched applications

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46284

Immediate Actions Required

• Update affected hosts to macOS Sequoia 15.7 or macOS Tahoe 26 as the primary remediation
• Restrict installation and execution of untrusted applications using Gatekeeper, notarization checks, and managed application allowlists
• Audit local user accounts and remove unnecessary standard accounts that could serve as a foothold for local exploitation

Patch Information

Apple released fixes in macOS Sequoia 15.7 and macOS Tahoe 26. Patch details are documented in Apple Support Document #125110 and Apple Support Document #125111. Administrators should deploy these updates through MDM or Software Update as soon as possible.

Workarounds

• No vendor-supplied workaround exists; apply the security update to fully remediate the issue
• Limit local code execution by enforcing application allowlisting and removing unused local accounts
• Increase logging of privileged process creation to shorten detection time if exploitation is attempted on unpatched systems

# Verify the installed macOS version meets the patched baseline
sw_vers -productVersion

# Trigger a software update check from the command line
sudo softwareupdate --list
sudo softwareupdate --install --all --restart