CVE-2025-24135: macOS Sequoia 15.3 Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Analysis and Mitigation with Improved Message Validation

In this post, we are going to discuss the recent vulnerability discovered in macOS Sequoia 15.3 operating system related to Privilege Escalation. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-24135, can be exploited by a malicious app to gain elevated privileges on a target machine. This can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information, system-wide changes, and even remote code execution.

We will cover the details of this vulnerability, such as its root cause, the potential exploit code, and the original references, as well as how Apple addressed this issue with improved message validation in their latest software update.

Original References

CVE-2025-24135 was first reported by [Insert Researcher's name], who published their findings on [Insert Date]. Here are some references to the original posts and analysis:

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability lies in the improper validation of messages sent between various components of the macOS operating system. A malicious app can send specially crafted messages to manipulate the behavior of another component with higher privileges, ultimately leading to privilege escalation.

A potential exploit for CVE-2025-24135 can involve the use of the following code snippet

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>

int main(void) {
    if (geteuid() == ) {
        printf("Exploit successful! Running with elevated privileges.\n");
        system("id");
    } else {
        printf("Exploit not successful. Running with regular privileges.\n");
        system("id");
    }
    return ;
}

This code snippet demonstrates a simple check for the effective user ID, which would be different in the case of successful privilege escalation. If the exploit were to be effective, the code would be executed with elevated privileges, allowing for malicious activities on the target machine.

Mitigation

Apple has addressed this vulnerability in macOS Sequoia 15.3 by applying improved message validation techniques. The improved message validation ensures that only the intended components can process the received messages, thus eliminating the possibility of privilege escalation through manipulative message passing.

Users are strongly urged to update their macOS operating system to Sequoia 15.3 as soon as possible to protect themselves against potential exploits targeting the CVE-2025-24135 vulnerability. You can find the macOS Sequoia 15.3 official release notes and download links here: [Link to Apple's official macOS Sequoia release page]

Conclusion

In summary, we have discussed the CVE-2025-24135 vulnerability that affects macOS Sequoia 15.3, which can potentially lead to a privilege escalation exploit allowing malicious apps to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data and perform system-wide changes. Apple has addressed this issue with improved message validation techniques, ensuring a safer macOS environment for users running the latest operating system version.

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Timeline

Published on: 01/27/2025 22:15:18 UTC
Last modified on: 03/03/2025 22:45:38 UTC