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CVE-2016-4674 Apple CVE debrief

CVE-2016-4674 is a high-severity macOS flaw in Apple’s ATS component affecting versions before 10.12.1. According to the NVD record, the issue can let a local user gain privileges or cause a denial of service through memory corruption and application crash. Apple’s advisory and the NVD entry both point to a local-attack scenario with no user interaction required, making this most relevant on systems where untrusted local code, shared accounts, or multi-user access are present.

Vendor
Apple
Product
CVE-2016-4674
CVSS
HIGH 7.8
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-02-20
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-02-20
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

macOS administrators, endpoint security teams, and users running macOS versions earlier than 10.12.1 should care most. It is especially relevant on shared Macs, developer workstations, lab machines, or any endpoint where a local attacker might already have a foothold.

Technical summary

The affected component is ATS, and the weakness is categorized by NVD as CWE-119 (memory corruption). The published CVSS vector is AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, indicating a locally exploitable issue that can have high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The corpus does not provide exploit details or precise trigger conditions beyond unspecified vectors, so the safest interpretation is that the flaw can be reached by a local process and may result in privilege escalation or a crash/denial of service.

Defensive priority

High for any environment still running affected macOS builds; otherwise medium as a historical issue. If current asset inventories exclude macOS before 10.12.1, the practical priority drops substantially. If legacy systems remain in service, treat this as an important local-escalation hardening item.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Verify whether any Macs are running macOS versions earlier than 10.12.1.
  • Apply Apple’s security update associated with HT207275 on any affected system.
  • Prioritize patching shared, kiosk, developer, and lab Macs first because local privilege escalation is most relevant there.
  • Review endpoint controls that limit untrusted local code execution and reduce exposure from non-admin accounts.
  • Use asset inventory and compliance checks to confirm no legacy affected macOS builds remain in production.

Evidence notes

This debrief is grounded in the supplied NVD record and Apple-linked advisory references only. The corpus states that macOS before 10.12.1 is affected, the issue involves ATS, and the impact is local privilege gain or denial of service through memory corruption and application crash. No exploit mechanism, proof-of-concept, or additional affected-component detail was provided in the source corpus, so those elements are intentionally omitted.

Official resources

Published in the CVE record on 2017-02-20T08:59:00.667Z. The supplied record was last modified on 2026-05-13T00:24:29.033Z.