Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-43287

Memory Safety in Apple Macos ≤ 26.0

Published
15 September 2025
Modified
03 November 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.1
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:H
EPSS Score 0.0021 12th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-43287 is a high-severity Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer (CWE-119) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).

Operationally, ranked at the 12th 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 SI-16 (Memory Protection) and SC-39 (Process Isolation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

The issue was addressed with improved memory handling. This issue is fixed in macOS Tahoe 26. Processing a maliciously crafted image may corrupt process memory.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-42881Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-24222Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-39870Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-64696Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-39873Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-30437Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2023-32436Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-64697Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2023-23507Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2023-42856Same product: Apple Macos

Affected Assets

apple
macos
≤ 26.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-16 Memory Protection
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • SC-39 Process Isolation
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V17.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly requires hardware or software memory protection mechanisms that would block or contain the buffer overflow and resulting process memory corruption from a crafted image.

prevent

Requires validation of input data (the malicious image) to reject malformed content before it can trigger out-of-bounds memory operations.

prevent

Enforces process isolation so that memory corruption in the image-processing component cannot affect other processes or the kernel.

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 (bounds checking, safe APIs, reviews) directly prevent this class of flaw.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and code analysis directly surface buffer-boundary flaws.

ID.RA-08 partial match
prevents

Receiving and triaging vulnerability disclosures commonly includes buffer-related reports.

PR.AT-02 partial match
prevents

Developer training on secure coding reduces introduction of memory-buffer errors.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching replaces vulnerable code containing buffer-boundary defects.

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.

detects

Security testing in development catches out-of-bounds accesses before release, covering most instances of the weakness.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates memory-safety practices that directly prevent buffer-boundary violations.

prevents

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

prevents

Secure architecture and engineering principles include memory-safe design patterns that mitigate buffer overflows.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer operations, directly eliminating CWE-119.

References