Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-20630

Apple Macos ≤ 26.3

Published
11 February 2026
Modified
12 February 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:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0012 2th percentile
Risk Priority 40 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-20630 is a medium-severity Insecure Inherited Permissions (CWE-277) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked at the 2th 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-6 (Least Privilege) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A permissions issue was addressed with additional restrictions. This issue is fixed in macOS Tahoe 26.3. An app may be able to access protected user data.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1034 Path Interception Persistence
**This technique has been deprecated.
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
T1552 Unsecured Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may search compromised systems to find and obtain insecurely stored credentials.
T1574 Hijack Execution Flow Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the way operating systems run programs.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-28207Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-27825Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-27822Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-23233Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43276Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-27847Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-27872Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-44175Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2024-44211Same product: Apple Macos
CVE-2025-43446Same product: Apple Macos

Affected Assets

apple
macos
≤ 26.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 8 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Least privilege requires that only the minimal necessary permissions are granted, which structurally prevents the definition and inheritance of overly broad permissions.

Access enforcement directly stops insecure inherited permissions from being applied to new objects by requiring all access decisions to follow approved authorizations.

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.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

Directly addresses defining and enforcing secure access permissions and least privilege, which prevents insecure inheritance.

PR.PS-01 partial match
prevents

Configuration management practices include establishing secure permission baselines that avoid insecure inheritance.

PR.PS-06 partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices would catch and prevent defining insecure inherited permissions during development.

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.

finds

Security testing may detect permission issues but does not prevent insecure inheritance by design.

degrades

Privileged access rights management can limit inheritance of excessive permissions but does not directly address insecure default permission inheritance.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle practices can include permission model reviews but do not guarantee secure inherited permissions.

prevents

Secure system architecture principles can incorporate least-privilege permission models but do not specifically mandate secure inheritance.

prevents

Secure coding standards can explicitly require setting restrictive permissions at object creation, directly mitigating insecure inheritance.

degrades

Information access restriction policies can reduce risk from inherited permissions but do not enforce secure permission inheritance at creation time.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Windows Server 2016 (2 rules)
  • V-224974 Domain-created Active Directory Organizational Unit (OU) objects must have proper access control permissions. prevents CWE-277
  • V-224972 Active Directory Group Policy objects must have proper access control permissions. prevents CWE-277
Windows Server 2019 (2 rules)
  • V-205743 Windows Server 2019 organization created Active Directory Organizational Unit (OU) objects must have proper access control permissions. prevents CWE-277
  • V-205741 Windows Server 2019 Active Directory Group Policy objects must have proper access control permissions. prevents CWE-277
Windows Server 2022 (1 rule)
  • V-254395 Windows Server 2022 organization created Active Directory Organizational Unit (OU) objects must have proper access control permissions. prevents CWE-277

References