VulnerabilityPublished 27 Jan 2025Updated 2 Apr 2026

CVE-2025-24120: Apple macOS · An attacker may be able to cause unexpected app termination

Affects Apple macOSSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High · fixed in 15.3 : patch Apple macOS soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 60% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 15.3

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Jan 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 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Apple macOS	Affected =0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-24120, organizations should immediately apply the security updates released by Apple in macOS Sequoia 15.3, Sonoma 14.7.3, and Ventura 13.7.3 or later. Beyond patching, administrators should implement network-level protections such as firewall rules and intrusion detection systems to monitor and block suspicious traffic targeting macOS applications. Regularly audit and monitor application logs for signs of unexpected crashes or abnormal behavior that could indicate exploitation attempts. Employ application whitelisting and sandboxing to limit the impact of any compromised applications. Educate users and IT staff about the importance of timely updates and the risks of denial of service attacks. For critical environments, consider deploying redundancy and failover mechanisms to maintain service availability in case of application termination. Additionally, maintain an incident response plan that includes procedures for handling denial of service incidents on macOS systems. Avoid exposing vulnerable macOS services directly to untrusted networks until patches are applied. Finally, stay informed through Apple security advisories and threat intelligence feeds for any emerging exploit developments related to this vulnerability.

Description

This issue was addressed by improved management of object lifetimes. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.3, macOS Sonoma 14.7.3, macOS Ventura 13.7.3. An attacker may be able to cause unexpected app termination.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2025-24120 is denial of service through unexpected application termination on macOS systems. This can disrupt user productivity, interrupt critical business applications, and potentially affect services relying on macOS infrastructure. Since the vulnerability can be exploited remotely without authentication or user interaction, it increases the attack surface and risk of widespread disruption. Organizations with macOS-dependent environments, including enterprises, creative industries, and government agencies, may experience operational downtime or degraded service availability. Although confidentiality and integrity are not directly impacted, the availability loss can have cascading effects, such as delayed workflows, loss of trust, and increased operational costs. The lack of known exploits in the wild currently limits immediate risk, but the ease of exploitation and high severity score suggest attackers may develop exploits in the future. This vulnerability could also be leveraged as part of multi-stage attacks to create distractions or cover other malicious activities. Overall, the impact is significant for any organization relying on vulnerable macOS versions, especially those with critical applications or services running on these platforms.

CWE-772Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product does not release a resource after its effective lifetime has ended, i.e., after the resource is no longer needed.
Requirements · Language Selection
Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Implementation
It is good practice to be responsible for freeing all resources you allocate and to be consistent with how and where you free resources in a function. If you allocate resources that you intend to free upon completion of the function, you must be sure to free the resources at all exit points for that function including…
Operation · Architecture and Design · Resource Limitation
Use resource-limiting settings provided by the operating system or environment. For example, when managing system resources in POSIX, setrlimit() can be used to set limits for certain types of resources, and getrlimit() can determine how many resources are available.
Attack patterns
HTTP DoS (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Apr 2026, 00:32 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-772

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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