VulnerabilityPublished 11 Feb 2026Updated 2 Apr 2026

CVE-2026-20602: Apple macOS · Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

Affects Apple macOSSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium · fixed in 26.3 : update Apple macOS when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

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

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 5% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 26.3, 15.7.4, 14.8.4

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

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
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: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
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 11 Feb 2026
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

Upgrade Apple macOS to 26.3, 15.7.4 or 14.8.4.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
ApplemacOS	Affected <26.3	Fixed in 26.3
ApplemacOS	Affected <15.7.4	Fixed in 15.7.4
ApplemacOS	Affected <14.8.4	Fixed in 14.8.4

AI-suggested

Organizations should promptly apply the security updates provided by Apple in macOS Sequoia 15.7.4, Sonoma 14.8.4, and Tahoe 26.3 to remediate this vulnerability. Beyond patching, implement strict application control policies to limit the execution of untrusted or unnecessary applications, reducing the risk of local exploitation. Employ endpoint protection solutions capable of detecting abnormal resource consumption patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. Monitor system logs and performance metrics for unusual cache usage or resource exhaustion symptoms. In multi-user environments, enforce least privilege principles and restrict local user permissions to minimize the potential impact of malicious or compromised applications. Regularly review and update security policies to ensure that local access is tightly controlled and that users are educated about the risks of running unverified software. Finally, maintain an incident response plan to quickly address any denial-of-service incidents that may arise.

Description

The issue was addressed with improved handling of caches. This issue is fixed in macOS Sequoia 15.7.4, macOS Sonoma 14.8.4, macOS Tahoe 26.3. An app may be able to cause a denial-of-service.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2026-20602 is denial-of-service, which can cause affected macOS systems to become unresponsive or crash, disrupting user productivity and potentially critical operations. Since exploitation requires local access with limited privileges, the threat is more relevant in multi-user environments, enterprise settings, or scenarios where untrusted applications might be executed. The vulnerability does not compromise confidentiality or integrity, but availability impacts could lead to service interruptions, loss of unsaved data, or operational downtime. Organizations relying on macOS for critical infrastructure, development, or workstation environments could face interruptions if exploited. Although no known exploits exist currently, the medium severity rating and ease of triggering resource exhaustion make timely patching important to prevent potential abuse, especially in environments with lax application controls or insider threat risks.

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended. A strong authentication and access control model will help prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place.
Architecture and Design
Mitigation of resource exhaustion attacks requires that the target system either: recognizes the attack and denies that user further access for a given amount of time, or; uniformly throttles all requests in order to make it more difficult to consume resources more quickly than they can again be freed.
Architecture and Design
Ensure that protocols have specific limits of scale placed on them.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.1.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Sustained Client Engagement (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, 02:45 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-400

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats