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CVE-2025-10016VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2025-10016: Sparkle · Incorrect Authorization

Affects SparkleSource CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.8 High · fixed in 2.7.2 : patch Sparkle soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
8.8High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 9% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 2.7.2
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 16 Sep 2025

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq 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

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Sparkle Project SparkleAffected
  • =0
Fixed in–

AI-suggested

European organizations should immediately verify if their macOS applications utilize the Sparkle framework and identify the version in use. Upgrading to Sparkle version 2.7.2 or later, where the vulnerability is fixed, is the primary and most effective mitigation. For environments where immediate upgrade is not feasible, organizations should restrict local access to macOS systems, enforce strict user account controls, and monitor for suspicious activity related to the Autoupdate daemon. Application developers should audit their integration of Sparkle to ensure no insecure usage patterns exist, such as spawning the Autoupdate daemon manually without proper authorization checks. Additionally, implementing endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools that can detect anomalous privilege escalation attempts and monitoring system authorization dialogs for tampering can help detect exploitation attempts. Regular security training to raise awareness about local privilege escalation risks and limiting physical or remote local access to trusted users further reduces exposure.

Description

The Sparkle framework includes a helper tool Autoupdate. Due to lack of authentication of connecting clients a local unprivileged attacker can request installation of crafted malicious PKG file by racing to connect to the daemon when other app spawns it as root. This results in local privilege escalation to root privileges. It is worth noting that it is possible to spawn Autopudate manually via Installer XPC service. However this requires the victim to enter credentials upon system authorization dialog creation that can be modified by the attacker. This issue was fixed in version 2.7.2

References

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