Security Resilience

CVE-2025-43463

Path Traversal in Apple Macos ≤ 14.8.3

Path Traversal
Published
12 December 2025
Modified
07 October 2026
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 0.0022 11th percentile
Risk Priority 42 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2025-43463 is a medium-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow (T1003.008); ranked at the 11th 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

A parsing issue in the handling of directory paths was addressed with improved path validation. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.7.3, macOS Sonoma 14.8.3, macOS Tahoe 26.1. An app may be able to access sensitive user data.

CWE(s)
CWE-22

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-40383Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43191Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-44195Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-23216Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43314Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43250Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-27887Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-20614Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-20669Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-24268Same product: Apple Macos

Affected Assets

apple
macos
≤ 14.8.3 · 15.0 — 15.7.3 · 26.0 — 26.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

Least privilege reduces the impact of any unauthorized file access obtained via traversal.

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-02 partial match
blocks

Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.

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
finds

Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.

References