CVE-2026-96293 in WatchGuard
Summary
by MITRE • 10/23/2026
A cleartext storage of sensitive information vulnerability in WatchGuard Endpoint Security's Full Disk Encryption feature for macOS allows a local, unprivileged user or process to obtain a managed computer's FileVault Personal Recovery Key by reading a persistently written diagnostic log file left readable by all local users.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/23/2026
The vulnerability identified within WatchGuard Endpoint Security’s Full Disk Encryption module for macOS represents a critical failure in the handling of cryptographic secrets, specifically classified under CWE-312 as Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information. This flaw manifests when the software writes diagnostic logs containing the FileVault Personal Recovery Key to disk without applying appropriate access controls or encryption mechanisms. In standard operating system security models, local users are often granted read permissions on certain log directories for troubleshooting purposes, but sensitive data such as recovery keys must never be exposed in this manner. The presence of the key in a persistently written file accessible by all local users effectively bypasses the protective measures intended to secure the disk encryption infrastructure.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability allows any user or process with local access on the affected machine to retrieve the FileVault Personal Recovery Key without authentication. This capability fundamentally undermines the confidentiality guarantees provided by Full Disk Encryption. If a malicious actor gains physical access to the device and obtains administrative privileges through social engineering or other means, they can leverage their existing low-privilege account to extract this key. Once obtained, the attacker can decrypt the entire volume of the compromised system, gaining unrestricted access to all stored data regardless of whether the drive is locked at boot time. This scenario aligns with ATT&CK technique T1539, which involves Stealing Web Session Cookies or similar credentials from local storage, although in this specific context it applies directly to cryptographic keys rather than session tokens.
The impact extends beyond simple data exfiltration. In enterprise environments where WatchGuard Endpoint Security is deployed for centralized management and compliance, the exposure of recovery keys can lead to significant regulatory violations involving standards such as GDPR or HIPAA due to unauthorized access to protected health information or personal identifiable data. Furthermore, it compromises the integrity of the endpoint security posture by rendering the full disk encryption feature ineffective against local threats. Attackers do not need to exploit complex memory corruption bugs or remote code execution vectors; they only require basic file system read permissions that are typically granted to standard user accounts on macOS systems for logging purposes.
Mitigation strategies must focus on immediate remediation of the storage mechanism and broader security hardening. The vendor should issue a patch that ensures diagnostic logs containing sensitive information are either not generated, encrypted at rest, or written to directories with restrictive access control lists limited only to system-level processes like root or specific service accounts. Administrators managing affected systems should immediately audit file permissions on log directories associated with the endpoint security agent and revoke read access for standard users if a patch is not yet available. Additionally, organizations should consider rotating FileVault recovery keys across their fleet as a precautionary measure after applying updates to ensure that previously exposed keys cannot be used by attackers who may have already harvested them from older logs. Regular audits of sensitive data handling practices within security agents are essential to prevent similar misconfigurations in future releases.