What is the CVSS score of CVE-2025-43232?

CVE-2025-43232 has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8 (Critical). CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.1%.

Which versions of macOS are affected by CVE-2025-43232?

CVE-2025-43232 allows locally-installed applications on macOS Sequoia, Sonoma, and Ventura to bypass privacy controls and access protected user resources without authorization, creating a…

How to fix or mitigate CVE-2025-43232?

Within 24 hours: Inventory all macOS Sequoia, Sonoma, and Ventura systems in production and development environments; identify business-critical systems requiring immediate remediation. Within 7 days: Deploy macOS Sequoia 15.6, macOS Sonoma 14.7.7, or macOS Ventura 13.7.7 to all endpoints via your mobile device management (MDM) platform, prioritizing users with access to sensitive data and financial systems. Within 30 days: Complete patching across all remaining macOS devices; audit recently-installed third-party applications on unpatched systems for suspicious permission usage.

macOS CVE-2025-43232

CRITICAL

Improper Access Control (CWE-284)

2025-07-30 product-security@apple.com

Apple macOS Privilege Escalation

9.8

CVSS 3.1 · NVD

Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY

9.8 CRITICAL

AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Lifecycle Timeline

Analysis Generated

Apr 02, 2026 - 19:37 vuln.today

CVE Published

Jul 30, 2025 - 00:15 nvd

CRITICAL 9.8

DescriptionCVE.org

A permissions issue was addressed with additional restrictions. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.6, macOS Sonoma 14.7.7, macOS Ventura 13.7.7. An app may be able to bypass certain Privacy preferences.

AnalysisAI

Privacy controls in macOS Sequoia, Sonoma, and Ventura can be bypassed by local applications due to insufficient permission enforcement, allowing unauthorized access to privacy-protected resources. Fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.6, Sonoma 14.7.7, and Ventura 13.7.7. CVSS score of 9.8 (Critical) reflects network-exploitable attack vector, but actual exploitation requires local app installation, making the CVSS vector (AV:N) likely misaligned with the described attack scenario. No public exploit identified at time of analysis; EPSS score of 0.08% (24th percentile) indicates low predicted exploitation probability despite high CVSS severity.

Technical ContextAI

This vulnerability stems from CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) affecting the macOS Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) framework, which mediates application access to privacy-sensitive resources like camera, microphone, location services, contacts, and files. The TCC framework maintains a database of user consent decisions and enforces permission checks when applications request access to protected resources. The permissions issue allowed malicious applications to circumvent these enforcement mechanisms, potentially through manipulation of permission databases, exploitation of race conditions in permission checks, or abuse of inter-process communication channels that bypass TCC validation. Apple addressed this with additional restrictions, likely hardening permission validation logic, strengthening database integrity checks, or closing loopholes in permission inheritance models. The affected CPE strings indicate impact across multiple major macOS versions: Ventura 13.x (released 2022), Sonoma 14.x (2023), and Sequoia 15.x (2024), suggesting a longstanding architectural weakness rather than a recent regression.

RemediationAI

Apply vendor-released security updates immediately: upgrade to macOS Sequoia 15.6 for Sequoia users, macOS Sonoma 14.7.7 for Sonoma users, or macOS Ventura 13.7.7 for Ventura users. These updates contain the fix addressing the permissions enforcement issue with additional restrictions to the TCC framework. Organizations should prioritize deployment to systems processing sensitive data or operating in regulated environments where privacy controls are compliance-critical. Update installation instructions and full security content documentation are available in Apple support articles HT124149, HT124150, and HT124151 at https://support.apple.com. As this vulnerability requires local application execution, interim mitigation strategies include enforcing application allow-listing policies, restricting installation of applications from unidentified developers through Gatekeeper settings, and auditing TCC permission grants via system preferences or tccutil command-line tools to identify suspicious permission requests. No effective workaround exists to fully mitigate the vulnerability without patching, as the flaw resides in core operating system permission enforcement mechanisms.