Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-42974

Race Condition in Apple Macos 12.0 – 12.7.2

Published
28 March 2024
Modified
04 November 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.0
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0015 4th percentile
Risk Priority 49 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-42974 is a high-severity Race Condition (CWE-362) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 7.0 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 4th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SC-39 (Process Isolation) and SC-4 (Information in Shared System Resources) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A race condition was addressed with improved state handling. This issue is fixed in macOS Monterey 12.7.2, macOS Ventura 13.6.3, iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2, iOS 16.7.3 and iPadOS 16.7.3, macOS Sonoma 14.2. An app may be able to execute…

more

arbitrary code with kernel privileges.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-43805Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2023-28201Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-27876Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-28986Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-23239Same product: Apple Ipad Os
CVE-2026-64720Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2023-32413Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-54510Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-20617Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-27823Same product: Apple Ipados

Affected Assets

apple
ipad os
≤ 16.7.3
apple
ipados
17.0 — 17.2
apple
iphone os
≤ 16.7.3 · 17.0 — 17.2
apple
macos
12.0 — 12.7.2 · 13.0 — 13.6.3 · 14.0 — 14.2

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V10.4.2
  • V10.4.5
  • V15.1.3
  • V15.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Maintaining separate execution domains for each process structurally eliminates unintended concurrent access to the same shared resources.

Preventing unintended information transfer through shared system resources directly addresses the improper concurrent modification that defines a race condition.

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 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require proper synchronization primitives and concurrency testing that prevent race conditions.

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.

finds

Security testing can detect race conditions, but does not prevent them at design or coding time.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates concurrency controls and synchronization primitives that directly prevent race conditions.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify thread-safety and locking rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

prevents

Secure architecture principles require proper synchronization and resource isolation, addressing the root cause of CWE-362.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe concurrent access patterns and mandate atomic operations or locks.

none

Change management reduces introduction of concurrency bugs during updates, yet does not address the weakness itself.

References