This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-24122, affects Intel-based Mac computers running macOS. It stems from a downgrade issue that could permit an application to modify protected areas of the file system, potentially compromising system integrity. Apple mitigated the issue by enhancing code-signing restrictions to prevent unauthorized modifications. The fix is included in macOS Sequoia 15.3, Sonoma 14.7.3, and Ventura 13.7.3 releases. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 5.5, reflecting a medium severity with local attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, user interaction required, unchanged scope, no confidentiality impact, high integrity impact, and no availability impact.

An attacker with local access and the ability to convince a user to interact with a malicious app could modify protected parts of the macOS file system, potentially leading to integrity violations. This could allow unauthorized changes to system files or configurations. There is no reported confidentiality or availability impact. No known exploits are currently active in the wild.

Apple has released official fixes for this vulnerability in macOS Sequoia 15.3, macOS Sonoma 14.7.3, and macOS Ventura 13.7.3. Users and administrators should apply these updates to remediate the issue. Since this is not a cloud service, remediation depends on applying the vendor-provided patches. Patch status is confirmed by the vendor advisory indicating the issue is fixed in these versions.