Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-20625

Path Traversal in Apple Macos 14.0 – 14.8.4

Published
11 February 2026
Modified
02 April 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0021 11th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-20625 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 Data from Local System (T1005); 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)

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 15.7.4, macOS Sonoma 14.8.4, macOS Tahoe 26.3, visionOS 26.3. An app may be able to access sensitive user…

more

data.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
Why these techniques?

CWE-22 path traversal directly enables unauthorized local file reads, mapping to T1005 Data from Local System.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-20653Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-20669Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2023-40383Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-28827Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-44167Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-24268Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-20688Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43314Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2026-28915Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43196Same product: Apple Macos

Affected Assets

apple
macos
14.0 — 14.8.4 · 15.0 — 15.7.4 · 26.0 — 26.3
apple
visionos
≤ 26.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

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

prevent

Directly requires validation of untrusted input such as directory paths, preventing the path traversal that enables unauthorized data access.

prevent

Enforces access control policies so that an app cannot traverse outside its authorized paths to reach sensitive user data.

prevent

Limits application privileges so that even a successful path traversal yields minimal additional access to sensitive 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-02 partial match
prevents

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 none match
prevents

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.

detects

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

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and path sanitization that directly prevent path traversal.

prevents

Application security requirements include rules for safe file handling and canonicalization.

prevents

Secure architecture principles require least-privilege file access and directory isolation.

prevents

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

mitigates

Information access restriction limits which files an application may read or write.

References