Overview

The CVE-2025-43204 vulnerability is a serious security flaw found in macOS that allows an application to potentially break out of its sandbox. This breach in the security mechanism of the operating system can lead to a system compromise or data leakage, posing a significant risk to businesses and individual users alike.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-43204
Severity: High (CVSS: 7.8)
Attack Vector: Local
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: System compromise or data leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

macOS | Prior to Tahoe 26

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability involves a flaw in the sandboxing mechanism of macOS. An application within its sandbox can exploit this flaw to escalate its privileges and gain access to resources outside its designated sandbox. This could potentially lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data or even a complete system takeover.

Conceptual Example Code

While the specific details of the exploit are not disclosed to avoid misuse, a conceptual example would involve an application executing malicious code to exploit the flaw in the sandboxing mechanism. The code might look something like this:

// Malicious application code
try {
// Attempt to access resource outside sandbox
Resource resource = Sandbox.getResource("/path/outside/sandbox");
// If successful, execute malicious operation
resource.executeMaliciousOperation();
} catch (SandboxException e) {
// If caught by sandbox, exploit flaw to escape
Sandbox.escape(e);
}

This is a simplification of what the exploit might look like in practice, to illustrate the nature of the vulnerability without revealing exact exploit methods.

Mitigation Guidance

To mitigate the CVE-2025-43204 vulnerability, users are strongly advised to apply the vendor-supplied patch included in macOS Tahoe 26. As a temporary mitigation measure, users can also employ a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to detect and prevent the exploitation of the vulnerability until the patch can be applied.