An integer overflow condition in macOS has been corrected through improved input validation, but prior to the fix, an application could leverage the overflow to gain elevated privileges. This weakness corresponds to CWE‑190 and, if successfully exploited, could allow a malicious or compromised software process to run with higher privileges, potentially compromising confidentiality, integrity, and availability of system resources. The vulnerability is limited to the operating system level, meaning the impact is confined to the affected device and the privileges it confers.

Affected releases include macOS Sequoia versions before 15.3, Sonoma versions before 14.7.3, and Ventura versions before 13.7.3. Apple’s security pages detailing the mitigation can be found at support articles 122068, 122069, and 122070. No other vendors are currently identified as impacted. The patching status for systems that have not yet been updated to these release thresholds puts them at risk.

The CVSS score of 8.8 indicates high severity, and the EPSS score of less than 1% suggests that exploitation is currently unlikely but not impossible. The vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog, which indicates no publicly known, active exploitation at the time of writing. The likely attack vector is an application with the necessary privileges that can orchestrate the overflow; the attacker would need local or remote access to execute the malicious code or trick a legitimate app into providing the vulnerable input. Because the flaw lies in the operating system’s core components, successful exploitation would elevate privileges to the system user or root, enabling the attacker to bypass macOS sandboxing mechanisms and perform arbitrary operations.