CVE-2024-36486: Parallels Desktop for Mac · UNIX Hard Link
Affects Parallels Desktop for MacSource CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High.
Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 25% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 3 Jun 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.
What to do
AI-suggested
1. Immediate upgrade: Organizations should promptly update Parallels Desktop for Mac to a patched version once available from the vendor. 2. Restrict archive restoration: Until patched, restrict the use of the virtual machine archive restoration feature to trusted administrators only. 3. Validate archives: Implement strict validation and scanning of virtual machine archives before restoration to detect malicious hard links or tampering. 4. Use least privilege: Limit user privileges on macOS hosts to minimize the number of users who can perform archive restoration. 5. Monitor system integrity: Deploy file integrity monitoring tools to detect unauthorized changes to critical system files that could indicate exploitation. 6. Employ endpoint protection: Use advanced endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions capable of detecting suspicious file operations and privilege escalation attempts on macOS. 7. Educate users: Train users on the risks of restoring untrusted virtual machine archives and enforce policies against using unverified sources.
Description
A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the virtual machine archive restoration functionality of Parallels Desktop for Mac version 20.1.1 (55740). When an archived virtual machine is restored, the prl_vmarchiver tool decompresses the file and writes the content back to its original location using root privileges. An attacker can exploit this process by using a hard link to write to an arbitrary file, potentially resulting in privilege escalation.