Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-43374

Memory Safety in Apple Macos ≤ 13.7.3

Published
21 November 2025
Modified
02 April 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
EPSS Score 0.0019 9th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-43374 is a medium-severity Stack-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-121) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 4.3 (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 SI-16 (Memory Protection) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An out-of-bounds read was addressed with improved bounds checking. This issue is fixed in iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5, iPadOS 17.7.7, macOS Sequoia 15.5, macOS Sonoma 14.7.3, macOS Ventura 13.7.3, tvOS 18.5, visionOS 2.5, watchOS 11.5. An attacker in physical…

more

proximity may be able to cause an out-of-bounds read in kernel memory.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-28897Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-28846Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-43661Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2026-43718Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-23296Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-23286Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-27804Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-23225Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-23246Same product: Apple Ipados
CVE-2024-23265Same product: Apple Ipados

Affected Assets

apple
ipados
≤ 17.7.7 · 18.0 — 18.5
apple
iphone os
≤ 18.5
apple
macos
≤ 13.7.3 · 14.0 — 14.7.3 · 15.0 — 15.5
apple
visionos
≤ 2.5
apple
watchos
≤ 11.5

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-16 Memory Protection
  • SI-2 Flaw Remediation
  • PE-3 Physical Access Control
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

prevent

Directly implements memory protection mechanisms that enforce bounds checking and prevent out-of-bounds kernel reads such as the one described.

prevent

Requires timely application of the vendor patches (iOS 18.5, macOS 15.5, etc.) that corrected the missing bounds checks in this CVE.

prevent

Limits physical proximity to the device, which is a prerequisite for exploiting the kernel out-of-bounds read vulnerability.

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-development practices directly prevent introduction of stack buffer overflows.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning can discover stack buffer overflows but does not prevent their introduction.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching eliminates known instances of the weakness after discovery.

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 (fuzzing, static analysis) detects stack overflows before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates buffer-safety practices that directly prevent stack overflows.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify buffer-size and input-validation rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles include memory-safety and least-privilege stack usage.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe buffer handling that causes CWE-121.

none

Change-management gates can enforce security reviews that catch buffer issues.

References