CVE-2026-10610: Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

CVE-2026-10610 Overview

CVE-2026-10610 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability affecting ESET security applications for macOS. An attacker with local, low-privileged access can leverage the flaw to execute arbitrary code as a privileged user. The weakness is classified under [CWE-269] Improper Privilege Management, indicating that the application fails to enforce correct privilege boundaries between processes or components.

ESET has issued a customer advisory and released fixed versions of the affected products. The vulnerability requires local access and low privileges, with no user interaction needed to exploit it successfully.

Critical Impact
A local attacker can escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code as a privileged user on macOS endpoints running vulnerable ESET security software, compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the host.

Affected Products

ESET security applications for macOS (see vendor advisory for specific product and version list)
Endpoint installations of ESET products on macOS operating systems
Fixed versions are documented in the ESET Customer Advisory

Discovery Timeline

2026-07-24 - CVE-2026-10610 published to NVD
2026-07-30 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-10610

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-10610 stems from improper privilege management within ESET security applications running on macOS. Security products on macOS typically install privileged helper components, system extensions, or launch daemons that operate with elevated rights to perform scanning, kernel-level monitoring, and system modifications. When such a component does not correctly validate the identity, integrity, or authorization of the caller, a lower-privileged local user can influence its behavior to run code in the privileged context.

The vulnerability enables full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability on the local host. Because the flaw resides in an endpoint security product, successful exploitation subverts a control that many organizations rely on for host defense.

Root Cause

The root cause is mapped to [CWE-269] Improper Privilege Management. According to the ESET advisory, a component of the security application permitted actions that should have been restricted to a privileged user, allowing an unprivileged local process to trigger arbitrary code execution with elevated rights. ESET has not released public exploitation details in the advisory.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires local access to the macOS host and low-level privileges such as those held by a standard interactive user. No user interaction is required beyond the attacker's own actions. Because the attack originates locally, common preconditions include prior access via phishing payloads, malicious applications, stolen credentials, or a compromised secondary account.

Once executed, the attacker obtains code execution as a privileged user. This can be used to disable the security product, tamper with logs, install persistence mechanisms, or move laterally by harvesting credentials from the host.

No public proof-of-concept exploit and no known in-the-wild exploitation have been reported for CVE-2026-10610 at the time of publication. Refer to the ESET Security Advisory for the vendor's technical description.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-10610

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected child processes spawned by ESET privileged helpers, daemons, or system extensions on macOS
New or modified files under privileged locations such as /Library/LaunchDaemons/, /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/, or ESET installation directories
Unexplained privilege transitions where a standard user session precedes root-owned process creation without a legitimate sudo or authorization event

Detection Strategies

Monitor macOS Endpoint Security telemetry for process executions where the parent is an ESET privileged component but the child is an unrelated binary or shell
Correlate AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges, XPC connections, and helper-tool invocations against the expected inventory of ESET binaries
Alert on modifications to ESET application bundles, entitlements, or code signatures that could indicate tampering following exploitation

Monitoring Recommendations

Baseline the legitimate behavior of installed ESET components and flag deviations such as new command-line arguments or unexpected file writes
Ingest macOS Unified Logs, EDR process telemetry, and file integrity events into a central data lake for retrospective hunting once patches are applied
Track installed ESET product versions across the fleet and alert when hosts remain on pre-fix builds after the vendor patch window

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-10610

Immediate Actions Required

Identify all macOS endpoints running ESET security applications and inventory the installed version
Upgrade affected installations to the fixed versions listed in the ESET Customer Advisory
Restrict local interactive access on macOS hosts to trusted administrators until patching is complete
Review recent privileged process activity on affected hosts for signs of exploitation

Patch Information

ESET has released fixed versions of the affected macOS security applications. Administrators should consult the vendor advisory for the exact product names and version numbers that remediate CVE-2026-10610, and deploy the updates through their standard software distribution channels. No official workaround replaces the patch; upgrading is the recommended remediation.

Workarounds

Limit local logon rights on macOS endpoints to reduce the pool of accounts capable of triggering the flaw
Enforce Full Disk Access and System Extension policies via mobile device management so unauthorized modifications to ESET components are blocked
Monitor and alert on any attempts to invoke ESET privileged helpers from non-standard code paths until patches are deployed fleet-wide

bash

# Example: check installed ESET product version on macOS
system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType | grep -A 4 -i "ESET"

# Example: list loaded system extensions to confirm ESET components
systemextensionsctl list