CVE-2021-30713
Access Control in Apple Mac Os X 10.15 – 10.15.7
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2021-30713 is a high-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Apple Mac Os X. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 6% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
A permissions issue stemming from insufficient validation was present in macOS Big Sur prior to version 11.4. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2021-30713 and assigned CWE-862, resides in the system's handling of application permissions and allows a malicious application to bypass Privacy preferences that would otherwise restrict access to sensitive user data or system resources.
An attacker with the ability to execute a malicious application on an affected system can exploit the vulnerability locally without user interaction. Successful exploitation grants the application elevated access equivalent to bypassing intended privacy controls, resulting in high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability as reflected in the CVSS 7.8 score.
Apple addressed the issue in the macOS Big Sur 11.4 update released on 24 May 2021. The vendor's security advisory (HT212529) and related disclosures explicitly recommend installing the update to remediate the permissions validation weakness.
Apple has stated it is aware of reports indicating the vulnerability may have been actively exploited in the wild prior to patching.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2021-17630
Vulnerability Data
A permissions issue was addressed with improved validation. This issue is fixed in macOS Big Sur 11.4. A malicious application may be able to bypass Privacy preferences. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively…
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exploited..
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 03 November 2021
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Requiring an access control policy ensures authorization checks are defined and applied for critical functions.
Reviews of access controls detect missing authorization checks on critical functions or resources.
Documenting permitted unauthenticated actions prevents missing authorization by making all exceptions explicit and subject to organizational review.
Requiring attribute association with information prevents authorization from being performed without necessary security or privacy context.
Mandating authorization prior to allowing remote connections addresses missing authorization for remote access.
Mandating authorization before wireless connections are allowed prevents missing authorization for wireless access.
The control requires authorization before allowing mobile device connections, directly mitigating missing authorization for system access.
Requiring approvals for account creation and specifying authorizations ensures authorization is not missing for system access.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Requiring formal authorization of every access request before rights are granted ensures that checks for required permissions are performed, preventing missing authorization checks from being introduced.
A.5.18's provisioning, review, revocation and activation steps (incl. owner approval, SoD, timely removal on role/termination change) directly stop exploitation of missing authorization checks by ensuring no actor receives or retains rights to resources they should not access; the bounded remainder is that it cannot stop missing-authorization defects inside the enforcement mechanism itself once rights have been granted (e.g. flawed code that ignores the rights table).
By requiring competent outsiders to verify that every function enforces the need-to-know principle, the control lowers the likelihood that missing authorization checks persist undetected.
A.5.8 integrates risk assessment, requirements elicitation and governance into the project lifecycle so that authorization needs can be identified and specified; it does not itself perform or enforce authorization checks, so the missing-authorization weakness can still be present and exploitable.
Security checkpoints and explicit authorization requirements in the design phase ensure that every sensitive function is paired with an access-control check, reducing missing-authorization defects.
A.8.27 mandates security-by-design principles (least privilege, default deny, security architecture integration, zero-trust never-trust/always-verify, dynamic access control) plus design reviews that directly specify and enforce authorization checks before access; this stops most missing-authorization cases from being exploitable, with a bounded remainder in non-architectural or legacy components where the principles were documented but not fully applied.
Hardening callouts derived
DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.
- No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-862, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.