exelban stats up to 2.11.20 XPC Service data authenticity

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical has been found in exelban stats up to 2.11.20. This affects an unknown function of the component XPC Service. The manipulation leads to data authenticity. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-21606. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in exelban stats up to 2.11.20 and classified as very critical. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component XPC Service. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a data authenticity vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-345. The product does not sufficiently verify the origin or authenticity of data, in a way that causes it to accept invalid data. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

stats is a macOS system monitor in for the menu bar. The Stats application is vulnerable to a local privilege escalation due to the insecure implementation of its XPC service. The application registers a Mach service under the name `eu.exelban.Stats.SMC.Helper`. The associated binary, eu.exelban.Stats.SMC.Helper, is a privileged helper tool designed to execute actions requiring elevated privileges on behalf of the client, such as setting fan modes, adjusting fan speeds, and executing the `powermetrics` command. The root cause of this vulnerability lies in the `shouldAcceptNewConnection` method, which unconditionally returns YES (or true), allowing any XPC client to connect to the service without any form of verification. As a result, unauthorized clients can establish a connection to the Mach service and invoke methods exposed by the HelperTool interface. An attacker can exploit this vulnerability to modify the hardware settings of the user’s device and execute arbitrary code with root privileges. This issue has been addressed in version 2.11.21 and all users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-21606 since 12/29/2024. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 01/17/2025).

Upgrading to version 2.11.21 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• exelban

Name

• stats

Version

• 2.11.0
• 2.11.1
• 2.11.2
• 2.11.3
• 2.11.4
• 2.11.5
• 2.11.6
• 2.11.7
• 2.11.8
• 2.11.9
• 2.11.10
• 2.11.11
• 2.11.12
• 2.11.13
• 2.11.14
• 2.11.15
• 2.11.16
• 2.11.17
• 2.11.18
• 2.11.19
• 2.11.20

Website

• Product: https://github.com/exelban/stats/

CPE 2.3info

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