CVE-2013-3954

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.9 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2013-06-05 · updated 2026-06-16
Weakness: CWE-20

Description

The posix_spawn system call in the XNU kernel in Apple Mac OS X 10.8.x does not properly validate the data for file actions and port actions, which allows local users to (1) cause a denial of service (panic) via a size value that is inconsistent with a header count field, or (2) obtain sensitive information from kernel heap memory via a certain size value in conjunction with a crafted buffer.

Affected products

Apple Iphone Os: through 6.1.4; 1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2 (+41)
macOS: 10.8.0, 10.8.1, 10.8.2, 10.8.3, 10.8.4

References

http://antid0te.com/syscan_2013/SyScan2013_Mountain_Lion_iOS_Vulnerabilities_Garage_Sale_Whitepaper.pdf
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2013/Oct/msg00004.html
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2013/Sep/msg00006.html
http://secunia.com/advisories/54886
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5934
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1029054
http://www.syscan.org/index.php/sg/program/day/2
http://antid0te.com/syscan_2013/SyScan2013_Mountain_Lion_iOS_Vulnerabilities_Garage_Sale_Whitepaper.pdf
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2013/Oct/msg00004.html
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2013/Sep/msg00006.html
http://secunia.com/advisories/54886
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5934

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