Security Resilience

CVE-2023-41968

Apple Macos 12.0.0 – 12.7

Published
27 September 2023
Modified
04 November 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0039 31th percentile
Risk Priority 43 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-41968 is a medium-severity Link Following (CWE-59) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Security Account Manager (T1003.002); ranked at the 31th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

This issue was addressed with improved validation of symlinks. This issue is fixed in macOS Ventura 13.6, tvOS 17, macOS Monterey 12.7, watchOS 10, iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma 14. An app may be able to read arbitrary…

more

files.

CWE(s)
CWE-59

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access cached domain credentials used to allow authentication to occur in the event a domain controller is unavailable.
attack.mitre.org →
T1011 Exfiltration Over Other Network Medium Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over a different network medium than the command and control channel.
attack.mitre.org →
T1016 System Network Configuration Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may look for details about the network configuration and settings, such as IP and/or MAC addresses, of systems they access or through information discovery of remote systems.
attack.mitre.org →
T1020 Automated Exfiltration Exfiltration
Adversaries may exfiltrate data, such as sensitive documents, through the use of automated processing after being gathered during Collection.
attack.mitre.org →
T1021.003 Distributed Component Object Model Lateral Movement
Adversaries may use [Valid Accounts](https://attack.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-44273Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2023-42942Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2025-43379Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2025-43448Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-44131Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-28866Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-44258Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2025-43220Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2025-24104Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-20694Same product: Apple Ipados

Affected Assets

apple
ipados
≤ 17.0
apple
iphone os
≤ 17.0
apple
macos
12.0.0 — 12.7 · 13.0 — 13.6
apple
tvos
≤ 17.0
apple
watchos
≤ 10.0

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly require code to validate paths and avoid unsafe link following.

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.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.8.10 Information deletion partial match
removes

References