CVE-2025-43244 is a critical vulnerability affecting Apple macOS operating systems, including versions macOS Sequoia 15.6, macOS Sonoma 14.7.7, and macOS Ventura 13.7.7. The vulnerability arises from a race condition, classified under CWE-362, which relates to concurrent access to shared resources without proper synchronization. This flaw allows a malicious application to trigger unexpected system termination, effectively causing a denial of service (DoS) by crashing the operating system. The vulnerability is exploitable remotely without requiring any privileges or user interaction, as indicated by the CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N). The impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability is rated as high, with the potential for complete system disruption. Apple has addressed this issue by improving state handling to prevent the race condition. Although no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the high CVSS score of 9.8 underscores the critical nature of this vulnerability and the urgency for patching affected systems.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk, especially for those relying on Apple macOS systems in critical infrastructure, enterprise environments, or service provision. The ability of an unprivileged, remote attacker to cause unexpected system termination can lead to widespread denial of service, disrupting business operations, causing data loss, and potentially impacting service availability. Sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, and technology firms that utilize macOS devices extensively could face operational downtime and reputational damage. Additionally, the disruption could be leveraged as part of multi-stage attacks, amplifying the overall threat landscape. Given the critical severity and ease of exploitation, organizations must prioritize remediation to maintain system stability and security compliance.

European organizations should immediately verify the macOS versions deployed across their environments and prioritize upgrading to the patched versions: macOS Sequoia 15.6, macOS Sonoma 14.7.7, or macOS Ventura 13.7.7. Network-level controls such as application whitelisting and restricting untrusted app installations can reduce exposure. Employ endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to monitor for abnormal application behavior indicative of exploitation attempts. Regularly audit and enforce least privilege principles to limit the potential impact of compromised applications. Additionally, organizations should implement robust backup and recovery procedures to mitigate the effects of unexpected system terminations. Security teams should stay alert for any emerging exploit reports and update incident response plans accordingly. Finally, educating users about the risks of installing unverified applications can further reduce attack vectors.