Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-43461

Apple Macos ≤ 26.1

Published
12 December 2025
Modified
15 December 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0018 8th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-43461 is a medium-severity Link Following (CWE-59) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked at the 8th 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 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

This issue was addressed with improved validation of symlinks. This issue is fixed in macOS Tahoe 26.1. An app may be able to access protected user data.

CWE(s)
CWE-59

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-43394Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-46293Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43381Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-31198Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43252Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-20610Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-27885Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43288Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-24103Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2023-42844Same product: Apple Macos

Affected Assets

apple
macos
≤ 26.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V15.4.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match
prevent

Directly enforces access control decisions on file resources so that symlink traversal cannot bypass protections on user data.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match
prevent

Requires validation of input such as file paths and symlinks before use, matching the root-cause fix described for CVE-2025-43461.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match
prevent

Limits application privileges so that even a successful symlink attack yields minimal additional access to protected data.

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 directly require code to validate paths and avoid unsafe link following.

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
detects

Security testing can detect link-following flaws before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices can mandate link-resolution checks and canonicalization before file access.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can explicitly require safe handling of symbolic links and path traversal.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles include input validation and safe file-access design patterns.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly address canonicalization and symlink attacks during implementation.

A.8.3 Information access restriction none match
none

Access-control rules can limit which files are reachable, reducing exposure to malicious links.

References