CVE-2016-7629 Apple CVE debrief

Who should care

Administrators and security teams managing Macs on macOS versions earlier than 10.12.2 should treat this as important, especially on systems that may run untrusted or user-supplied apps. Endpoint defenders should also care because the issue involves privileged code execution potential.

Technical summary

The NVD entry identifies a memory corruption weakness (CWE-119) in Apple's kext tools component. The vulnerability affects macOS before 10.12.2. The CVSS vector is CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, which suggests a local attack path with required user interaction and potentially severe impact once triggered. Apple’s advisory and related references are listed in the source record.

Defensive priority

High for unsupported or pre-10.12.2 macOS systems. Prioritize remediation on any fleet still below the fixed release, then validate that endpoint baselines block or rapidly retire older macOS builds.

Recommended defensive actions

• Upgrade affected macOS systems to 10.12.2 or later.
• Identify and prioritize any Macs still running versions earlier than 10.12.2.
• Limit execution of untrusted or user-supplied applications on affected hosts until they are updated.
• Review endpoint compliance reporting to confirm the vulnerable macOS versions are no longer present.
• Use standard macOS patch management and change-control processes to verify remediation across the fleet.

Evidence notes

This debrief is based only on the supplied NVD CVE record and its listed references. The record states that macOS before 10.12.2 is affected, describes a kext tools memory corruption issue, and links the impact to arbitrary code execution in a privileged context or denial of service. The NVD metadata also provides the CVSS v3.0 vector and CWE-119 classification. No additional exploitation details were used.

Official resources