Description

A use after free issue was addressed with improved memory management. This issue is fixed in macOS Golden Gate 27, macOS Sequoia 15.8, macOS Tahoe 26.7. An app may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-14T21:17:27.180Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-14T21:17:27.180Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A critical Use-After-Free (UAF) vulnerability has been identified within the kernel memory management subsystem of several macOS releases. This memory corruption flaw allows an attacker-controlled application to potentially execute arbitrary code with kernel-level privileges, effectively bypassing standard OS security sandboxes.\nThe vulnerability affects macOS Golden Gate 27, macOS Sequoia 15.8, and macOS Tahoe 26.7. The flaw stems from improper memory lifecycle management, which, when exploited, leads to a dangling pointer condition.\nSuccessful exploitation grants an attacker full control over the system, as kernel execution provides the highest level of privilege, allowing for complete compromise of system integrity, confidentiality, and availability. The exploit requires an attacker to be capable of executing code within an application context, which may then interact with the vulnerable kernel interface to trigger the memory corruption.\nGiven the nature of kernel-level vulnerabilities, the risk implications are severe, as they facilitate privilege escalation and persistence mechanisms that are difficult to detect or mitigate via user-space security controls.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is a classic Use-After-Free (UAF) condition located within the kernel memory management routines. A UAF vulnerability occurs when an application continues to use a pointer after the memory area it points to has been deallocated or freed. In this instance, the kernel fails to adequately track or nullify references to specific objects once they are released, leaving a 'dangling pointer' in active memory.\nThe attack flow typically begins with an attacker-controlled application triggering a specific kernel-side operation that allocates a memory object. Through the manipulation of the application's execution flow, the attacker induces the kernel to free this memory object prematurely while retaining a reference to it in another part of the kernel's state. By subsequently triggering further heap allocations, the attacker aims to perform a 'heap grooming' or 'heap spraying' technique. The goal is to occupy the newly freed memory slot with malicious data controlled by the attacker.\nWhen the kernel later attempts to access the original, dangling pointer, it inadvertently interacts with the attacker-injected data. If the attacker has successfully crafted the malicious payload to resemble a legitimate kernel structure or object (such as a function pointer table or a kernel object containing a callback), the kernel may execute code at an attacker-controlled address. Because the execution occurs within the context of the kernel, the malicious payload inherits kernel-level privileges (Ring 0).\nThis vulnerability is particularly potent because it bypasses conventional user-space mitigations. Once arbitrary code execution is achieved in the kernel, the attacker can disable security features, install rootkits, exfiltrate sensitive data from protected memory spaces, or maintain persistence across system reboots. The vulnerability exists in the core kernel subsystems responsible for object lifetime management. Affected versions include macOS Golden Gate 27, macOS Sequoia 15.8, and macOS Tahoe 26.7. As the vulnerable component resides within the kernel, exploitation generally requires the ability to execute code on the target host, though it does not strictly require external network exposure, making local privilege escalation (LPE) the primary attack vector."
}