CVE-2025-30457
Published: 31 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-30457 is a critical-severity Link Following (CWE-59) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 45.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SC-4 (Information in Shared System Resources) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Requires timely identification, reporting, and patching of the symlink validation flaw, aligning with Apple's recommendation to update to fixed macOS versions.
Enforces validation of symlink paths and resolutions to prevent bypassing disk boundaries, directly addressing the improper link resolution vulnerability.
Prevents unauthorized information transfer to protected disk regions via symlinks as shared filesystem resources.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Symlink validation bypass allows malicious app to access protected disk regions, enabling unauthorized operations on system files that facilitate privilege escalation.
NVD Description
This issue was addressed with improved validation of symlinks. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.4, macOS Sonoma 14.7.5, macOS Ventura 13.7.5. A malicious app may be able to create symlinks to protected regions of the disk.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-30457 is a symlink validation vulnerability (CWE-59: Improper Link Resolution before Boundaries Checking) affecting macOS systems. It allows a malicious app to create symlinks pointing to protected regions of the disk, bypassing intended access controls. The issue has been addressed in macOS Sequoia 15.4, macOS Sonoma 14.7.5, and macOS Ventura 13.7.5 through improved symlink validation. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating critical severity with high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
A remote attacker with no privileges or user interaction can exploit this flaw by delivering a malicious app to the target system. Once executed, the app can create symlinks to restricted disk areas, potentially enabling unauthorized read, write, or deletion of sensitive data in protected locations, such as system files or user directories.
Apple security advisories detail the fix via enhanced symlink checks and recommend updating to the patched versions (macOS Sequoia 15.4, Sonoma 14.7.5, or Ventura 13.7.5) as the primary mitigation. Additional details are available in the referenced support bulletins at https://support.apple.com/en-us/122373, https://support.apple.com/en-us/122374, and https://support.apple.com/en-us/122375, along with full disclosure postings on seclists.org.
Details
- CWE(s)