CVE-2024-44224 in macOS
Summary
by MITRE • 12/12/2024
A permissions issue was addressed with additional restrictions. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.2, macOS Sonoma 14.7.2, macOS Ventura 13.7.2. A malicious app may be able to gain root privileges.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/07/2026
This vulnerability represents a critical permissions flaw in apple's macOS operating system that could potentially allow malicious applications to escalate their privileges to root level access. The issue stems from insufficient access controls and security restrictions within the system's permission model, creating an avenue for unauthorized privilege escalation. The vulnerability affects multiple versions of macOS including the latest releases of sequoia 15.2, sonoma 14.7.2, and ventura 13.7.2, indicating a widespread impact across apple's operating system ecosystem. The flaw specifically relates to how the system handles application permissions and user access controls, potentially allowing a malicious application to bypass normal security boundaries that should prevent unauthorized root access. According to industry security standards, this type of vulnerability maps to cwe-276, which describes improper permissions and access control mechanisms that allow unauthorized users or processes to gain elevated privileges. The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it fundamentally undermines the core security model of the operating system, potentially enabling attackers to execute arbitrary code with the highest level of system privileges. Attackers could leverage this weakness to install persistent backdoors, modify system files, or exfiltrate sensitive data without detection, making it particularly dangerous in enterprise and government environments where system integrity is paramount.
The technical nature of this permissions issue suggests that it involves a flaw in how the operating system validates application requests for elevated privileges or how it manages the transition between user-level processes and system-level operations. This type of vulnerability often occurs when the system fails to properly enforce mandatory access controls or when there are gaps in the privilege checking mechanisms that should prevent unauthorized access to core system functions. The fix implemented in the updated macOS versions involves strengthening these access control measures and adding additional validation checks that prevent malicious applications from exploiting the permission gap. From an attacker's perspective, this vulnerability would likely be classified under the mitre attack framework as privilege escalation techniques, specifically targeting the 'privilege escalation' tactic and potentially the 'rootkit' or 'execution' techniques depending on how it's exploited. The remediation process requires system administrators to update to the specified versions of macOS to ensure that the additional restrictions are properly enforced. Security professionals should monitor for any attempts to exploit this vulnerability in the wild, as the potential for zero-day exploitation exists given the severity of the privilege escalation capability it provides.
Organizations should immediately prioritize patching affected systems to prevent exploitation of this permissions flaw. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond individual user devices to enterprise networks where a compromised system could serve as a foothold for broader attacks. System administrators should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify any potentially compromised systems and implement additional monitoring for suspicious privilege escalation activities. The fix addresses a fundamental weakness in the operating system's security architecture, specifically targeting the way applications request and receive elevated privileges. This type of vulnerability highlights the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and demonstrates how even minor permission gaps can create significant security risks. Security teams should also consider implementing additional protective measures such as application whitelisting, enhanced process monitoring, and regular security audits to detect potential exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's classification under cwe-276 emphasizes the critical nature of proper access control implementation and the potential consequences when these controls fail. Organizations must understand that this vulnerability represents a breakdown in the operating system's core security model and requires immediate attention to prevent potential system compromise and data breaches.