Apple macOS/visionOS/iOS/iPadOS up to 26.2 App path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Apple macOS, visionOS, iOS and iPadOS up to 26.2. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component App. The manipulation leads to path traversal. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-20615. The attack needs to be performed locally. There is not any exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Apple macOS, visionOS, iOS and iPadOS up to 26.2. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component App. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-22. The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A path handling issue was addressed with improved validation. This issue is fixed in iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3, macOS Tahoe 26.3, macOS Sonoma 14.8.4, visionOS 26.3. An app may be able to gain root privileges.

The advisory is shared at support.apple.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-20615 since 11/11/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. An attack has to be approached locally. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 02/26/2026). MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1006 for this issue.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 298694 (macOS 26.x < 26.3 Multiple Vulnerabilities (126348)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 26.3 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (298694). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Smartphone Operating System

Vendor

• Apple

Name

• iOS
• iPadOS
• macOS
• visionOS

Version

• 26.0
• 26.1
• 26.2

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.apple.com/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

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