Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-20615 is a high-severity Path Traversal (CWE-22) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 6th 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.
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-2026-20615 is a path handling vulnerability (CWE-22) that was addressed through improved validation mechanisms. It affects Apple's iOS and iPadOS versions prior to 26.3, macOS Sonoma prior to 14.8.4, macOS Tahoe prior to 26.3, and visionOS prior to 26.3. The flaw allows a malicious app to potentially gain root privileges on affected systems, earning 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).
Exploitation requires a local attacker with low privileges, such as a compromised or malicious app already installed or executed on the target device. The low attack complexity and lack of required user interaction enable straightforward privilege escalation, resulting in high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability through root access.
Apple security advisories detail the fixes in the specified updates, recommending immediate patching to iOS 26.3, iPadOS 26.3, macOS Sonoma 14.8.4, macOS Tahoe 26.3, or visionOS 26.3 as the primary mitigation. Additional guidance is available in the referenced support documents at https://support.apple.com/en-us/126346, https://support.apple.com/en-us/126348, https://support.apple.com/en-us/126350, and https://support.apple.com/en-us/126353.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-6181
Vulnerability Data
A path handling issue was addressed with improved validation. This issue is fixed in iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3, macOS Sonoma 14.8.4, macOS Tahoe 26.3, visionOS 26.3. An app may be able to gain root privileges.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V5.3.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Enforces the intended directory access authorizations that path traversal would otherwise bypass.
Input validation directly neutralizes special path elements before pathname construction occurs.
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.
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.
PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.
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.
Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis.
Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.
Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.
Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe path construction and mandate safe APIs.
Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.