CVE-2026-86914 in macOS
Summary
by MITRE • 10/20/2026
An information disclosure issue was addressed with improved state management. This issue is fixed in macOS Golden Gate 27, macOS Sequoia 15.8, macOS Tahoe 26.7. An app may be able to access sensitive network connection information.
Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/20/2026
The vulnerability described involves a flaw in the operating system's state management mechanisms that inadvertently exposes sensitive network connection data to applications that should not have access to such information. This type of issue typically arises when internal system states, which track active connections, socket statuses, or routing tables, are exposed through public APIs or shared memory segments without adequate permission checks or isolation boundaries. In the context of macOS, this could allow a malicious or compromised application to enumerate network interfaces, identify connected peers, determine the nature of ongoing communications, or infer user activity patterns based on connection states. Such information disclosure can serve as reconnaissance data for further attacks, such as session hijacking, man-in-the-middle positioning, or targeted exploitation of services running on specific ports.
The root cause lies in insufficient validation of access controls during state retrieval operations. When an application requests network status information, the system fails to verify whether the requesting process has legitimate authorization to view that particular subset of data. This oversight allows processes with lower privileges to gather details about high-privilege connections or private internal communications. The flaw is categorized under CWE-200: Information Exposure, as it involves the unintended leakage of sensitive operational data. From a tactical perspective, this aligns with ATT&CK technique T1046: Network Service Discovery, where adversaries probe network services to map out available targets and potential entry points within an environment.
The impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privacy concerns. By accessing detailed network connection states, attackers can gain insights into the security posture of a device, identifying open ports, active daemons, or connected external resources that may be vulnerable to exploitation. This information enables more precise targeting in subsequent attack phases, reducing the noise and increasing the success rate of further intrusions. For enterprise environments, this could lead to lateral movement opportunities if internal service architectures are revealed. The issue affects multiple versions of macOS, including Golden Gate 27, Sequoia 15.8, and Tahoe 26.7, indicating a systemic weakness in how network state information is handled across different releases or branches of the operating system codebase.
Mitigation requires immediate patching to the latest available updates provided by Apple for the affected macOS versions. These patches likely implement stricter access control checks within the kernel-level networking subsystems and ensure that only authorized processes can query sensitive connection states. Administrators should enforce automated update policies to minimize exposure windows. Additionally, defense-in-depth strategies such as application sandboxing and least-privilege principles can limit the damage if a vulnerability is exploited before patches are applied. Monitoring for unusual network enumeration activities using endpoint detection and response tools may also help identify attempts to exploit this information disclosure flaw in real time.