Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-43318

Access Control in Apple Macos ≤ 26.0

Published
15 September 2025
Modified
03 November 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.2
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0019 9th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-43318 is a medium-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 6.2 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked at the 9th 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-25 (Reference Monitor) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

This issue was addressed with additional entitlement checks. This issue is fixed in macOS Tahoe 26. An app with root privileges may be able to access private information.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-23230Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43286Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-54466Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43331Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-44208Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-24181Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-44156Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-31194Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-24108Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43311Same product: Apple Macos

Affected Assets

apple
macos
≤ 26.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
  • AC-25 Reference Monitor
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly enforces entitlement-based authorization decisions so an app—even one running as root—cannot access private information without explicit checks.

prevent

Limits the privileges granted to an application so that root execution alone does not automatically confer access to protected user data.

prevent

Requires a tamper-proof reference monitor to mediate every subject-object access, exactly the mechanism the missing entitlement checks should have provided.

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.AA-05 full match
prevents

Explicitly requires defining, enforcing, and reviewing authorizations and least privilege, directly preventing missing authorization checks.

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.

prevents

Requiring authentication and credentials before any access occurs eliminates the absence of authorization checks that would otherwise allow an unauthenticated actor to reach protected resources.

prevents

Requiring formal authorization of every access request before rights are granted ensures that checks for required permissions are performed, preventing missing authorization checks from being introduced.

prevents

Mandatory authorization checks and central records of granted rights ensure that every access attempt is preceded by an explicit decision rather than relying on missing checks.

mitigates

Segregating the approval of access rights from their implementation provides an independent check that reduces the impact of missing authorization checks in the resulting system configuration.

detects

By requiring competent outsiders to verify that every function enforces the need-to-know principle, the control lowers the likelihood that missing authorization checks persist undetected.

prevents

Defining authorization responsibilities and reviewing risk-treatment progress throughout the project lifecycle catches missing authorization checks before the system is deployed.

References