A race condition that existed in certain macOS releases was addressed in newer versions with improved locking. The flaw can be triggered by mounting a maliciously crafted SMB network share, and it may cause the entire macOS system to terminate, effectively leading to a denial of service. This vulnerability is identified as a race condition (CWE‑362) and therefore can allow an attacker to interfere with the program’s execution flow.

Affected Apple macOS installations include versions released prior to macOS Sequoia 15.4, macOS Sonoma 14.7.5, and macOS Ventura 13.7.5. Apple has provided fixes in the update releases for these operating system families. Users running any earlier macOS build are vulnerable and should consider upgrading to the specified patched releases.

The CVSS score of 9.8 indicates a high severity of the issue. The EPSS score of less than 1% suggests that exploitation probability is currently low. The vulnerability is not listed in CISA’s KEV catalog, implying no public evidence of widespread exploitation. Based on the description, it is inferred that the likely attack vector is mounting a malicious SMB share, which could be performed remotely if the SMB service is exposed, or locally by an attacker with network access. The impact is purely availability (system termination), and no direct confidentiality or integrity compromise is described.