CVE-2024-40594 identifies a vulnerability in the OpenAI ChatGPT application for macOS released before July 5, 2024. The core issue is that the app opts out of the macOS sandboxing mechanism, which is designed to isolate applications and limit their access to system resources and user data. By opting out, the ChatGPT app stores conversation data in cleartext in a filesystem location that is accessible to other applications running on the same macOS device. This storage approach violates best practices for data confidentiality and increases the risk that malicious or compromised local applications could read sensitive user conversations. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-312 (Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information). The CVSS v3.1 base score is 2.3, reflecting low severity due to the requirement for local access with high privileges and the lack of impact on data integrity or system availability. No user interaction or remote network access is needed to exploit this vulnerability, but an attacker must already have local access with elevated privileges to read the stored data. There are no known exploits in the wild at this time, and no official patch links have been provided yet. The vulnerability was publicly disclosed on July 6, 2024.

The primary impact of this vulnerability is the potential unauthorized disclosure of sensitive user conversations stored by the ChatGPT macOS app. Organizations using this app on macOS devices risk exposure of confidential or proprietary information if other applications or users on the same device can access the stored cleartext data. This could lead to privacy violations, leakage of intellectual property, or exposure of sensitive personal or business information. However, the impact is limited by the requirement that an attacker must have high privilege local access to the device, which reduces the likelihood of widespread exploitation. There is no impact on data integrity or system availability, and remote exploitation is not possible. Still, in environments where multiple users share devices or where malware with elevated privileges is present, this vulnerability could facilitate data leakage.

To mitigate this vulnerability, users and organizations should update the OpenAI ChatGPT macOS app to a version released after July 5, 2024, where this issue is resolved. Until an update is available, organizations should enforce strict local access controls on macOS devices running ChatGPT, including limiting administrative privileges and restricting installation of untrusted applications that could access the stored conversation files. Employing full disk encryption and enabling macOS FileVault can reduce the risk of offline data exposure. Additionally, monitoring and auditing local application permissions and sandboxing policies can help detect and prevent unauthorized access. Developers should avoid opting out of sandboxing unless absolutely necessary and ensure sensitive data is encrypted at rest. Users should also be cautious about sharing devices and ensure that only trusted users have access to systems running the vulnerable app.