An application on Apple devices can exploit a parsing flaw in the handling of directory paths. The vulnerability, classified as CWE‑281, allows an app to bypass normal access controls and obtain root privileges if it can influence how the OS processes a constructed path. The flaw was specifically addressed in iOS 18.4/iPadOS 18.4 and macOS Sequoia 15.4, Sonoma 14.7.5, and Ventura 13.7.5.

Devices running affected releases of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS are vulnerable. This includes any iPhone, iPad, or macOS computer on versions of the operating system prior to the specified patch levels. The issue has been fixed in iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, macOS Sequoia 15.4, macOS Sonoma 14.7.5, and macOS Ventura 13.7.5, so systems running those or later releases are not exposed.

The CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8 reflects moderate to high severity. The EPSS score is reported as less than 1 %, indicating that exploitation is unlikely to appear frequently in the wild, and the vulnerability is not currently included in the CISA KEV catalog. Nonetheless, because the flaw enables arbitrary elevation to root, the potential impact is critical. It is inferred that the attacker must supply a malicious directory path through an application that processes such paths; the exploit would be executed within the context of that application, possibly through a bundled or downloaded component. Because the vulnerability involves local path parsing, the likely attack vector involves a user‑installed application or script executing with elevated privileges on a device.