A use‑after‑free vulnerability in macOS memory management allows an application to access resources that have already been released. Triggering this fault can cause the operating system to crash, resulting in a denial‑of‑service condition. The weakness is formally classified as CWE‑416: Use After Free. The vulnerability can affect system stability, but it does not provide direct access to confidential data or system code.

macOS releases prior to Sequoia 15.7.8, Sonoma 14.8.8, and Tahoe 26.6 are impacted. Devices running these earlier versions may experience application or system crashes if exploited. Updating to the specified firmware releases removes the flaw.

The EPSS score is less than 1%, indicating a low probability of exploitation. The vulnerability is not listed in CISA's KEV catalog, and no active exploitation has been reported. Attackers would need to target a vulnerable application that accesses freed memory. Because the flaw results in a crash rather than code execution, the threat is limited to a loss of availability and service interruption. The CVSS score of 9.8 reflects the severity of the resulting denial‑of‑service, but the overall exploit risk remains low due to the minimal exploitation probability.