CVE-2026-24070
Published: 02 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-24070 is a high-severity Untrusted Search Path (CWE-426) vulnerability in Native-Instruments Native Access. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 0.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 CM-14 (Signed Components) and CM-6 (Configuration Settings).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Enforcing secure baseline configuration settings prohibits entitlements like com.apple.security.cs.allow-dyld-environment-variables and com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation, directly blocking DYLIB injection.
Requiring digital signatures and validation for all software components, including DYLIBs, prevents injection of untrusted libraries that impersonate the signed Native Access application.
Runtime integrity verification of software detects unauthorized DYLIB injections or modifications used to invoke the privileged XPC helper for privilege escalation.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Direct dylib injection via app entitlements enables local privilege escalation by abusing the privileged XPC helper (T1068 + T1574.004).
NVD Description
During the installation of the Native Access application, a privileged helper `com.native-instruments.NativeAccess.Helper2`, which is used by Native Access to trigger functions via XPC communication like copy-file, remove or set-permissions, is deployed as well. The communication with the XPC service of…
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the privileged helper is only allowed if the client process is signed with the corresponding certificate and fulfills the following code signing requirement: "anchor trusted and certificate leaf[subject.CN] = \"Developer ID Application: Native Instruments GmbH (83K5EG6Z9V)\"" The Native Access application was found to be signed with the `com.apple.security.cs.allow-dyld-environment-variables` and `com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation` entitlements leading to DYLIB injection and therefore command execution in the context of this application. A low privileged user can exploit the DYLIB injection to trigger functions of the privileged helper XPC service resulting in privilege escalation by first deleting the /etc/sudoers file and then copying a malicious version of that file to /etc/sudoers.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-24070 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Native Instruments Native Access application on macOS. The application deploys a privileged helper XPC service, com.native-instruments.NativeAccess.Helper2, during installation to handle operations such as copy-file, remove, or set-permissions via XPC communication. Access to this service requires the client process to be signed with a specific Developer ID Application certificate for Native Instruments GmbH. However, Native Access itself is signed with the entitlements com.apple.security.cs.allow-dyld-environment-variables and com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation, enabling DYLIB injection and arbitrary code execution in the application's context.
A low-privileged local user can exploit the DYLIB injection vulnerability to impersonate the Native Access application and invoke functions in the privileged helper XPC service. This allows the attacker to delete the /etc/sudoers file and copy a malicious version in its place, achieving full root privilege escalation. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) and is categorized under CWE-426 (Untrusted Search Path).
Mitigation details are available in the security advisory published by SEC Consult at https://sec-consult.com/vulnerability-lab/advisory/multiple-vulnerabilities-in-native-instruments-native-access-macos/.
Details
- CWE(s)