A critical vulnerability in macOS, dubbed “Sploitlight” and tracked as CVE-2025-31199, allowed attackers to bypass Apple’s Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) protections and access sensitive user data without user authorization. The flaw specifically exploited Spotlight importers plugins designed to help index file content for Spotlight search by abusing their elevated access through the mds daemon and mdworker processes. These processes are trusted by macOS and can access sensitive directories such as Photos, Messages, and system caches, enabling a stealthy path to data exfiltration.

According to the Researcher, the attack vector involves modifying the Info.plist and schema.xml files within a .mdimporter plugin bundle to declare desired target file types using UTI (Uniform Type Identifier) formats. Attackers could place the unsigned, malicious plugin into the ~/Library/Spotlight directory and invoke it using the mdimport -r command. This forces macOS to index files as specified by the attacker, logging sensitive file contents in segments into the unified system log, which can then be exfiltrated using native tools like the log utility. The exploitation does not require TCC permissions for the calling app since the actual indexing occurs within the trusted mdworker process, effectively bypassing Apple’s intended access control.

The impact of this vulnerability goes beyond local file access. By exploiting system privileges and leveraging the uttype utility, attackers could identify and extract data from Apple Intelligence caches, including Photos.sqlite databases containing GPS locations, face recognition data, photo metadata, search histories, and user preferences. Furthermore, due to iCloud account syncing, an attacker compromising one macOS device could potentially retrieve metadata and face tagging information related to other connected Apple devices, expanding the scope of the breach across an entire ecosystem.

Apple addressed the issue in a March 31, 2025 security update for macOS Sequoia, and Researchers which discovered the flaw, updated Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to detect abnormal .mdimporter installations and unauthorized indexing attempts. Users are strongly advised to install Apple’s latest security patches immediately, as this TCC bypass represents a serious threat to personal privacy and cross-device security within the Apple ecosystem.