A flaw in the authentication mechanism of macOS allows a local attacker to gain elevated privileges on the affected system. The weakness corresponds to CWE‑287, indicating that the authentication process can be bypassed or compromised, potentially giving the attacker full control of the machine. This flaw can be exploited when the attacker has local access, such as physical presence or an active local session, and can therefore use the elevated privileges to manipulate system settings, access sensitive data, or install malicious software.

Apple macOS systems, particularly those running releases before Sequoia 15.6, are vulnerable. Apple explicitly states that the issue is corrected in macOS Sequoia 15.6. Any macOS version older than that that has not received this update remains at risk.

The CVSS score of 7.8 reflects a high severity for local privilege escalation. The EPSS score of less than 1% suggests that the exploitation probability is very low at this time, and the vulnerability is not listed in CISA’s KEV catalog, indicating no known widespread exploitation. The likely attack vector is local, requiring an attacker to be present on the target machine or otherwise have local code execution capability. Once exploited, the attacker can elevate privileges, potentially compromising the entire system’s integrity and confidentiality.