Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-43520 is a medium-severity Classic Buffer Overflow (CWE-120) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 35th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2025-43520 is a memory corruption vulnerability, classified under CWE-120, that was addressed through improved memory handling in multiple Apple operating systems. It affects iOS and iPadOS versions prior to 18.7.2 and 26.1, macOS Sequoia prior to 15.7.2, macOS Sonoma prior to 14.8.2, macOS Tahoe prior to 26.1, tvOS prior to 26.1, visionOS prior to 26.1, and watchOS prior to 26.1. The issue carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H), indicating a medium-severity local vulnerability with high availability impact.
A local attacker with low privileges, such as one running a malicious application on the system, can exploit this vulnerability. Successful exploitation may lead to unexpected system termination, resulting in a denial-of-service condition, or enable writing to kernel memory, potentially disrupting kernel stability.
Apple's security advisories detail the patches applied in the specified versions, recommending that users update to iOS 18.7.2 or 26.1, iPadOS 18.7.2 or 26.1, macOS Sequoia 15.7.2, macOS Sonoma 14.8.2, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, visionOS 26.1, or watchOS 26.1 to mitigate the issue. Further details are available in the vendor's release notes at https://support.apple.com/en-us/125632, https://support.apple.com/en-us/125633, https://support.apple.com/en-us/125634, https://support.apple.com/en-us/125635, and https://support.apple.com/en-us/125636.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-203153
Vulnerability Data
A memory corruption issue was addressed with improved memory handling. This issue is fixed in iOS 18.7.2 and iPadOS 18.7.2, iOS 26.1 and iPadOS 26.1, macOS Sequoia 15.7.2, macOS Sonoma 14.8.2, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, visionOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1.…
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A malicious application may be able to cause unexpected system termination or write kernel memory.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 20 March 2026
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.2.1
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and analysis can find missing size checks before deployment.
Input validation directly enforces size checks before buffer copies.
Engineering principles require bounds checking and safe buffer handling in design.
Memory protection limits the impact of an overflow once it occurs.
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.
Secure development practices directly enforce bounds checking and input validation that prevent classic buffer overflows.
Vulnerability identification processes such as code review or scanning detect classic buffer overflows before exploitation.
Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing unchecked buffer copies with corrected versions.
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.
Secure coding directly requires bounds-checked memory operations, addressing the root cause of CWE-120.
Security testing in development and acceptance can detect buffer overflows through fuzzing and static analysis, though it does not prevent them at the source.
Secure development life cycle mandates processes that can include input validation and bounds checking to prevent buffer overflows.
Application security requirements can specify input-size validation and safe buffer handling to mitigate classic buffer overflows.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles promote defensive coding patterns that reduce the likelihood of unchecked buffer copies.