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CVE-2025-46284 Apple CVE debrief

A race condition vulnerability in macOS could allow a malicious application to escalate privileges to root. Apple addressed this with additional validation in macOS Sequoia 15.7 and macOS Tahoe 26. The vulnerability was published on May 26, 2026. No CVSS score or severity rating has been assigned by NVD at this time. The issue is not listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

Vendor
Apple
Product
macOS
CVSS
HIGH 7
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2026-05-26
Original CVE updated
2026-07-23
Advisory published
2026-05-26
Advisory updated
2026-07-23

Who should care

System administrators managing macOS endpoints, security teams responsible for Apple device fleets, and organizations with bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies involving macOS systems should prioritize this patch. The local privilege escalation vector is particularly relevant for environments where users may install or execute untrusted applications.

Technical summary

CVE-2025-46284 is a race condition vulnerability in macOS that could enable an application to gain root privileges. Apple remediated this issue by implementing additional validation checks. The fix is available in macOS Sequoia 15.7 and macOS Tahoe 26. Race conditions in privilege escalation contexts typically involve time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) weaknesses where an attacker manipulates system state between validation and execution phases.

Defensive priority

high

Recommended defensive actions

  • Apply macOS Sequoia 15.7 or macOS Tahoe 26 to affected systems as soon as possible
  • Prioritize patching systems where users run untrusted or third-party applications
  • Monitor for anomalous privilege escalation attempts via endpoint detection tools
  • Review application installation policies to restrict execution of unverified software
  • Await NVD CVSS scoring for quantitative risk assessment

Evidence notes

CVE description confirms race condition with root privilege escalation potential. Apple security advisories (HT213843, HT213844) document fixes in macOS Sequoia 15.7 and macOS Tahoe 26. Vendor attribution to Apple is based on reference domain evidence with low confidence and requires review.

Sources and references

Verified primary and authoritative sources

  • CVE-2025-46284 CVE Program record

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-46284

    CVE Program - Official CVE Program record with source-provided CVE metadata.

  • CVE-2025-46284 NVD vulnerability detail

    Publisher, destination, and source semantics verified

    URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-46284

    NIST National Vulnerability Database - Official NIST NVD detail page and source-specific vulnerability assessment.

Supplemental references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.