CVE-2026-20641
Published: 11 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-20641 is a high-severity Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor (CWE-200) vulnerability in Apple Macos. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Software Discovery (T1518); ranked at the 3.4th 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-4 (Information Flow Enforcement).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-20641 is a privacy vulnerability classified under CWE-200, enabling a malicious app to identify other apps installed on a user's device through inadequate checks. It affects multiple Apple operating systems, including iOS and iPadOS versions prior to 18.7.5 and 26.3, macOS Sequoia prior to 15.7.4, macOS Sonoma prior to 14.8.4, macOS Tahoe prior to 26.3, tvOS prior to 26.3, visionOS prior to 26.3, and watchOS prior to 26.3. Published on 2026-02-11, the issue carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N).
The vulnerability can be exploited by an attacker with local access who tricks a user into installing a malicious app, requiring no privileges but necessitating user interaction. Upon exploitation, the app achieves high confidentiality impact by exposing the user's installed app list and high integrity impact, potentially allowing further privacy-invasive actions without affecting availability.
Apple's security advisories confirm the issue was fixed with improved checks in the specified software updates across affected platforms. Mitigation involves applying these patches promptly: iOS/iPadOS 18.7.5 or 26.3, macOS Sequoia 15.7.4, macOS Sonoma 14.8.4, macOS Tahoe 26.3, tvOS 26.3, visionOS 26.3, and watchOS 26.3. Detailed information is available in Apple support documents at https://support.apple.com/en-us/126346, https://support.apple.com/en-us/126347, https://support.apple.com/en-us/126348, https://support.apple.com/en-us/126349, and https://support.apple.com/en-us/126350.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-5934
Vulnerability details
A privacy issue was addressed with improved checks. This issue is fixed in iOS 18.7.5 and iPadOS 18.7.5, iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3, macOS Sequoia 15.7.4, macOS Sonoma 14.8.4, macOS Tahoe 26.3, tvOS 26.3, visionOS 26.3, watchOS 26.3. An app…
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may be able to identify what other apps a user has installed.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Vulnerability directly enables local enumeration of installed applications by a malicious app (CWE-200 info disclosure), mapping to Software Discovery.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly enforces restrictions so one app cannot query or obtain the list of other installed applications.
Prevents unauthorized information flow that would allow an app to discover the presence of other apps on the device.
Limits each app to the minimum privileges needed, blocking the ability to enumerate other installed applications.