Evidence used
- CISA confirms exploitation in the wild.
- Exploitation requires an existing local or physical foothold with privileges.
- EPSS is 9.52% for the current model date.
BlackTreeCVE IntelligenceFull vulnerability report · 2023
CVE-2023-41992High confidence
Apple Multiple Products Kernel Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
Apple · Multiple Products
7.8HighCVSS 3.1
Protect now
Fix not verifiedCISA confirms exploitation in the wild and lists 2023-10-16 as the remediation due date.
R
Open reassessment dashboard →Operational reassessment
Published severity in operational context
Published severityHigh→Operational priority:Critical, raised one band.upgradedsince 25 Sep 2023
Compensating controls
- Restrict local access and enforce least privilege on affected hosts.
- Increase monitoring for the attack path and post-exploitation behaviour described in the report.
Verification
- Confirm that the asset runs Apple Multiple Products and falls inside the recorded affected range.
- Recheck the vendor advisory before scheduling a change because no verified fixed version is currently retained.
- Validate exposure, authentication requirements and compensating controls in the actual environment.
- Reopen this reassessment when CVSS, KEV, EPSS, exploit evidence or remediation changes.
CISA confirms exploitation in the wild and lists 2023-10-16 as the remediation due date.
Fix not verified01
What, why and how
Apple iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS contain an unspecified vulnerability that allows for local privilege escalation.
What
Apple iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS contain an unspecified vulnerability that allows for local privilege escalation.
Why
The product does not check or incorrectly checks for unusual or exceptional conditions that are not expected to occur frequently during day to day operation of the product.
How
An attacker operating through local access may attempt exploitation with low privileges. If successful, the issue may gain additional privileges.
What
Apple iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS contain an unspecified vulnerability that allows for local privilege escalation.
Why
The product does not check or incorrectly checks for unusual or exceptional conditions that are not expected to occur frequently during day to day operation of the product.
How
An attacker operating through local access may attempt exploitation with low privileges. If successful, the issue may gain additional privileges.
02
Exploit reality and attack path
CVSS severity, EPSS forecast probability, public exploit material and CISA-confirmed exploitation are separate signals.
Observed exploitation Confirmed in the wild
?
Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.CISA added this CVE to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on 2023-09-25.
Public PoC / exploit material None recorded
?
Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.No exploit-tagged reference or CISA SSVC proof-of-concept state is currently recorded. Research may still exist outside the structured feeds.
- Likely attack path
- local access → Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions → gain additional privileges
- Attack surface
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low: a basic authenticated account is required
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low: no specialised conditions are recorded
- Security boundary
- Unchanged: impact remains within the vulnerable component's security authority
- Weakness
?
CWE means Common Weakness Enumeration: a standard category for the underlying weakness. - CWE-754 ↗
CWE-754: Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions. The product does not check or incorrectly checks for unusual or exceptional conditions that are not expected to occur frequently during day to day operation of the product.
- CVSS vector
?
CVSS means Common Vulnerability Scoring System. The vector records the metric values used to calculate technical severity. CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCommon Vulnerability Scoring System 3.1: the compact vector below is decoded into plain language.
AVLocalAttack vector: The attacker needs local access to the vulnerable system.ACLowAttack complexity: No specialised conditions are required beyond attacker-controlled input.PRLowPrivileges required: The attacker needs basic user-level privileges.UINoneUser interaction: No action by another user is required.SUnchangedScope: The security impact remains within the vulnerable component's authority.CHighConfidentiality impact: A successful attack can cause a major loss.IHighIntegrity impact: A successful attack can cause a major loss.AHighAvailability impact: A successful attack can cause a major loss.- Post-exploitation / living off the land
- The issue can support a local privilege or sandbox boundary transition; normal system utilities may then be available in the gained context.
03
Patch and workaround
Operational remediation based on structured source evidence.
- Status
?
Patch availability is based on structured fixed-version fields and authoritative update references. If no fix is verified, check the vendor advisory before making a change. - Fix not verified
- Affected
- macOS: unspecified < 12.7, unspecified < 13.6
- iOS and iPadOS: unspecified < 16.7
- Fixed
- No fixed version is explicitly recorded in the structured CVE data.
- Action
- No verified patch reference is present in the current structured sources. Check the vendor advisory before making a change.
- Workaround
- No verified workaround is recorded. Limit untrusted access and use least privilege until authoritative guidance is available.
Official vendor articles2 stored documents
Linked articles are downloaded and versioned as source evidence. A CVE mention or approved update relationship does not, by itself, verify a fix for every product branch.
- About the security content of watchOS 10.0.1 - Apple Support →Original publisher ↗Searchable text snapshot · Captured 29 Sep 2026Apple Store Mac iPad iPhone Watch Vision AirPods TV & Home Entertainment Accessories Support 0 + "},{"name":"compact","assetInline":" "}],"analyticsAttributes":[{"name":"data-analytics-title","value":"apple home"}]},{"id":"ad4a2a26eb4836393385e9f6c61b526b4a3cb31409c5ed8730ce7a704dd7132f","name":"store","te
- About the security content of watchOS 9.6.3 - Apple Support →Original publisher ↗Searchable text snapshot · Captured 29 Sep 2026Apple Store Mac iPad iPhone Watch Vision AirPods TV & Home Entertainment Accessories Support 0 + "},{"name":"compact","assetInline":" "}],"analyticsAttributes":[{"name":"data-analytics-title","value":"apple home"}]},{"id":"ad4a2a26eb4836393385e9f6c61b526b4a3cb31409c5ed8730ce7a704dd7132f","name":"store","te
04
Evidence and provenance
Published 21 Sept 2023 · Last source change 4 Nov 2025, 19:21 UTC · CWE-754 · Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
CVE recordCVE.org · 5.2
CVSS sourceNIST NVD
EPSS source FIRST · tracked since 2026-08-14
?
The date BlackTree first stored a score for this CVE from the daily FIRST EPSS feed.European sourceENISA EUVD · EUVD-2023-46451
Product sourceCISA KEV
Remediation sourceCVE/CNA references
CWE sourceCISA ADP
NVD statusNVD enriched
Core structured fields are present and their contributing authorities are shown above.
Material change intelligence
View recent updates ↗What changed after publication
- Vendor guidanceAuthoritative vendor guidance changed: removed remediation: cyber.gc.ca/apple-security-advisory-av23-574.support.apple.com ↗
- Before
- remediation: cyber.gc.ca/apple-security-advisory-av23-574 · vendor advisory: support.apple.com/HT213927 · vendor advisory: support.apple.com/HT213931 · 1 more references
- After
- vendor advisory: support.apple.com/HT213927 · vendor advisory: support.apple.com/HT213931 · vendor advisory: support.apple.com/HT213932
- Remediation statusRemediation status changed from Mitigation available to Awaiting fix.support.apple.com ↗
- Before
- Mitigation available
- After
- Awaiting fix
- Affected versionsThe structured affected or fixed version information changed.CNA ↗
- Before
- unspecified < 12.7; unspecified < 16.7; unspecified < 13.6 · Fixed: No fixed version is explicitly recorded in the structured CVE data.
- After
- macOS: unspecified < 12.7, unspecified < 13.6; iOS and iPadOS: unspecified < 16.7 · Fixed: No fixed version is explicitly recorded in the structured CVE data.
- Remediation statusRemediation status changed from Awaiting fix to Mitigation available.Canadian Centre for Cyber Security ↗
- Before
- Awaiting fix
- After
- Mitigation available
Technical terms and abbreviations used in this report
- CVE
- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures: the public identifier for one disclosed vulnerability.
- CVSS
- Common Vulnerability Scoring System: a technical severity framework; it is not patching priority by itself.
- EPSS
- Exploit Prediction Scoring System: FIRST's estimate of the probability that exploitation activity will be observed in the next 30 days; it is a forecast, not confirmation.
- CWE
- Common Weakness Enumeration: the standard category describing the underlying software or hardware weakness.
- CNA
- CVE Numbering Authority: an organisation authorised to assign and publish CVE records.
- CISA ADP
- Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Authorized Data Publisher: structured enrichment added to a CVE record.
- NVD
- National Vulnerability Database: NIST's enrichment service for CVE records.
- CERT / CSIRT
- A computer security incident response team that publishes warnings or coordinates incident response.
- PoC
- Proof of concept: public material that demonstrates or helps reproduce exploitation.
- CSAF
- Common Security Advisory Framework: a machine-readable format for security advisories.
- LoTL
- Living off the land: abuse of legitimate tools or system functions during an attack.