CVE-2026-20610
Published: 11 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-20610 is a high-severity Link Following (CWE-59) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 3.6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-20610 is a vulnerability stemming from improper handling of symlinks (CWE-59) in macOS Tahoe versions prior to 26.3. Published on 2026-02-11, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). The flaw enables an app to escalate privileges to root level.
Exploitation requires local access on the target system with low-privilege credentials, such as a standard user account. A local attacker can execute a malicious app that abuses the symlink resolution issue to gain root privileges, resulting in high-impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability violations.
Apple's advisory confirms the issue was fixed in macOS Tahoe 26.3 through improved symlink handling. Additional details are available at https://support.apple.com/en-us/126348.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-6188
Vulnerability details
This issue was addressed with improved handling of symlinks. This issue is fixed in macOS Tahoe 26.3. An app may be able to gain root privileges.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Direct local privilege escalation via symlink handling flaw matches Exploitation for Privilege Escalation.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
SI-2 requires timely identification, reporting, and correction of system flaws, directly mitigating CVE-2026-20610 by applying the macOS Tahoe 26.3 patch for improved symlink handling.
AC-6 enforces least privilege, limiting the scope and impact of privilege escalation from low-privileged apps exploiting symlink mishandling to gain root access.
AC-3 mandates enforcement of approved access authorizations, addressing improper symlink resolution that bypasses access controls to enable root privilege gain.