CVE-2025-31188
Published: 31 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-31188 is a high-severity Race Condition (CWE-362) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique TCC Manipulation (T1548.006); ranked at the 6.6th 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Directly mitigates the race condition by requiring timely remediation through patching to the fixed macOS versions (15.4, 14.7.5, 13.7.5).
Enforces approved authorizations for privacy preferences, preventing apps from bypassing user-configured access controls to protected data.
Implements additional input validation to address the race condition in privacy preference checks, as applied in the vendor fix.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Race condition enables bypass of macOS Privacy preferences/TCC controls, directly facilitating T1548.006 TCC Manipulation for unauthorized access to protected resources.
NVD Description
A race condition was addressed with additional validation. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.4, macOS Sonoma 14.7.5, macOS Ventura 13.7.5. An app may be able to bypass Privacy preferences.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-31188 is a race condition vulnerability, classified under CWE-362, that was addressed through additional validation in macOS. It affects macOS Sequoia versions prior to 15.4, macOS Sonoma prior to 14.7.5, and macOS Ventura prior to 13.7.5, enabling an application to bypass Privacy preferences.
The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). A local attacker requires no privileges but must induce user interaction, such as running a malicious application, to exploit the race condition and bypass privacy controls, potentially achieving high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts by accessing or manipulating protected user data.
Apple's security advisories confirm the issue was fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.4, macOS Sonoma 14.7.5, and macOS Ventura 13.7.5 via additional validation. Mitigation involves updating to these patched versions, with further details available in the referenced Apple support pages (https://support.apple.com/en-us/122373, https://support.apple.com/en-us/122374, https://support.apple.com/en-us/122375) and Full Disclosure archives (http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2025/Apr/10, http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2025/Apr/8).
Details
- CWE(s)