Technical impact
The vulnerability allows an application to modify protected areas of the filesystem. By exercising elevated write permissions, an attacker could tamper with system files or alter application data, potentially compromising data integrity and system stability. The weakness arises from incorrect assignment of filesystem permissions, enabling unauthorized modification of critical resources.
Affected Systems
Apple macOS versions prior to the patches mentioned in the advisory are affected. The fixed releases are macOS Sequoia 15.7.5, macOS Sonoma 14.8.5, and macOS Tahoe 26.4. All earlier builds may still be vulnerable, with the vulnerability manifesting on any user or application capable of writing to protected filesystem components.
Risk and Exploitability
The CVSS score of 5.5 indicates moderate severity, and the EPSS score of less than 1% suggests low current exploitation probability. The issue is not included in the CISA KEV catalog, further implying limited known exploitation. Exploitation would require local execution of a malicious or compromised application that can bypass the permission checks, and the attack vector is inferred to be local or user‑level.
