CVE-2016-7600 Apple CVE debrief

Who should care

Mac administrators, endpoint/security teams, and anyone managing macOS systems running 10.12.1 or earlier should treat this as a patching issue. Organizations with local account exposure, shared Macs, or tightly controlled confidentiality requirements should pay particular attention.

Technical summary

The NVD entry describes an OpenPAM-related flaw in Apple products where failed PAM authentication is mishandled by a sandboxed app, enabling disclosure of sensitive information. The record assigns CWE-200 (Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor) and a CVSS 3.0 vector of AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N, indicating a locally reachable confidentiality issue without integrity or availability impact.

Defensive priority

Medium. The issue is limited to local attack surface and confidentiality impact, but it affects a core authentication-related component and is fully addressed by updating vulnerable macOS versions.

Recommended defensive actions

• Update affected macOS systems to 10.12.2 or later.
• Inventory Macs running macOS 10.12.1 or earlier and prioritize them for remediation.
• Confirm Apple’s vendor advisory and follow the remediation guidance referenced in the NVD record.
• Restrict unnecessary local account access on exposed systems until they are updated.
• Validate endpoint compliance after patching to ensure no vulnerable macOS versions remain in service.

Evidence notes

The source corpus states: "macOS before 10.12.2 is affected" and that the issue involves the "OpenPAM" component, which allows local users to obtain sensitive information by leveraging mishandling of failed PAM authentication by a sandboxed app. The NVD metadata also lists CVSS 3.0 vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N and CWE-200. Published date used here is 2017-02-20T08:59:02.137Z; the 2026-05-13 modification timestamp is metadata only and not the issue date.

Official resources