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Severity
High
Analysis Summary
A newly discovered race condition in Apple’s macOS kernel (XNU), tracked as CVE-2025-24118, could allow attackers to escalate privileges, corrupt memory, and execute kernel-level code. Security researcher identified the vulnerability, which has been rated 9.8 (Critical) on the CVSS scale. Apple has patched it in macOS Sonoma 14.7.3, macOS Sequoia 15.3, and iPadOS 17.7.4.
The flaw stems from an interaction between Safe Memory Reclamation (SMR), per-thread credentials, read-only page mappings, and memcpy behavior, leading to a time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition. The vulnerability specifically affects the p_ucred field, which holds a process’s credentials within a read-only structure. A non-atomic memory update can corrupt a thread’s kauth_cred_t credential pointer, potentially allowing an attacker to assign a more privileged credential to their process.
An unprivileged local attacker can exploit this flaw using a multi-threaded attack that forces frequent credential updates. Researcher’s analysis provides a technical breakdown of how the race condition occurs, including a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit demonstrating its impact.
Apple has mitigated CVE-2025-24118 by improving memory handling and enforcing atomic updates for credential pointers in affected macOS and iPadOS versions.
Impact
- Security Bypass
- Memory Corruption
- Privilege Escalation
- Remote Code Execution
Indicators of Compromise
CVE
CVE-2025-24118
Affected Vendors
- Apple
Affected Products
- Apple iPadOS 17.7.4
- Apple macOS Sequoia 15.3
- Apple macOS Sonoma 14.7.3
Remediation
- Refer to Apple Security Advisory for patch, upgrade, or suggested workaround information.
- Organizations must test their assets for the vulnerability mentioned above and apply the available security patch or mitigation steps as soon as possible.
- Implement multi-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security to login processes.
- Regularly monitor network activity for any unusual behavior, as this may indicate that a cyberattack is underway.
- Organizations must stay vigilant and follow best practices for cybersecurity to protect their systems and data from potential threats. This includes regularly updating software and implementing strong access controls and monitoring tools.
- Develop a comprehensive incident response plan to respond effectively in case of a security breach or data leakage.
- Maintain regular backups of critical data and systems to ensure data recovery in case of a security incident.
- Adhere to security best practices, including the principle of least privilege, and ensure that users and applications have only the necessary permissions.
- Establish a robust patch management process to ensure that security patches are evaluated, tested, and applied promptly.
- Conduct security audits and assessments to evaluate the overall security posture of your systems and networks.
- Implement network segmentation to contain and isolate potential threats to limit their impact on critical systems.
