CVE-2023-42860

Operating Systems Impacted

macOS Monterey (prior to 12.7.1)

macOS Ventura (prior to 13.6.1)

macOS Sonoma (prior to 14.1)

Additional Resources

Description

CVE-2023-42860 is a permissions issue within Apple's PackageKit framework that could allow an application to modify protected parts of the file system. The vulnerability was addressed by Apple through additional restrictions in macOS Monterey 12.7.1, macOS Ventura 13.6.1, and macOS Sonoma 14.1. According to Kandji's analysis, this vulnerability allowed an attacker to swap the installer package after the system verified its code signature. The system would then install the supplied package instead of the original, enabling the attacker to bypass System Integrity Protection (SIP).

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to unauthorized modification of protected file system areas by an application. The severity of this issue has been assessed as follows: